Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

The infamous series of unexplainable murders in Hinamizawa have been solved and the chains of fate have broken due to the efforts of Rika Furude and her friends. Rika believes she has finally obtained the normal and peaceful life she desired with her friends; however, she is proven wrong when the wheels of fate begin turning once again after an unfortunate accident.

Rika suddenly finds herself in a "perfect" world, the constant cycle of brutal killings having never taken place, where all of her friends are content and satisfied. Not wanting to abandon the world that she fought so hard for, she learns she must destroy an essential "key" to get back. But can Rika abandon the faultless world she is given the chance to live in, after all of her battles have brought her this far?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Furude, Rika Main

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Ryuuguu, Rena Main

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Sonozaki, Mion Main

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Maebara, Keiichi Main

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Hanyuu Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Houjou, Satoko Main

Kanai, Mika Japanese

Sonozaki, Shion Supporting

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Takano, Miyo Supporting

Itou, Miki Japanese

Ooishi, Kuraudo Supporting

Chafurin Japanese

Houjou, Satoshi Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Oomori, Hiroyuki Producer

Matsuda, Keiichi Producer

Okamura, Takema Producer

Fukao, Satoshi Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jan 10, 2022

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: A series of OVAs that have two comedy focused episodes, one pretty good and one just okay, and three episodes of an epilogue arc to Kai which is good in concept but somewhat weak in implementation.

*Note: This review has minor spoilers for Higurashi and Higurashi Kai.*

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei is a five episode OVA series that is somewhat of a sequel to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, though with only the three episodes in the middle actually serving as the sequel. These three episodes feature Rika arriving in another timeline where things are essentially perfect and all of the tragedies that ... befell the cast of Hinamizawa in all the other timelines simply never happened.

As such, it’s a look at how the cast was shaped by their experiences and how they could have ended up completely different people without them. In doing so, it also explores themes such as the value of having gone through suffering because of the growth that it can produce. It also touches on the concept of how because people are essentially who they are because of their life experiences, if the exact same person goes through completely different life experiences they are a completely different person, and thus if one were to choose the characters from one timeline of life experiences, that would be essentially rejecting the characters from the other timeline of life experiences. It also further fleshes out the lasting damage that going through countless timelines had on Rika, especially in regards to her relationship with her mother. It also felt like we got to see more sides of Rika as compared to the previous seasons, which essentially further cements her as the real protagonist of this series if there was any doubt after Kai.

The general subject matter and content it wanted to contain are solid enough in concept, but I think execution was somewhat lacking. It played way too fast and loose with the rules regarding Rika’s reincarnation and different timelines that had been established so far in order to push the plot in the direction of what was needed to for the themes it wanted to touch on. Still, if it had handled the themes well enough this would have felt warranted, but in the end I felt it only handled them decently well. The climax felt like it was essentially skipped over in some sense which felt kind of awkward in terms of pacing. Instead it went straight to an epilogue that felt pretty much like an overtly heavy handed infodump that tried to outline and explain why what occurred made sense and was justified with a heavy reliance on essentially stating that the problem that Rika was dealing with was one that humans weren’t meant to be able to consider. I feel this is a complete cop out however, as having the courage to fight fate was a core theme of the series up to this point with it being explicitly referred to in a conversation right before this, and thus the message here feels completely inconsistent with that. Thus, in the end I really have no clue what this OVA series was trying to convey.

The other two episodes, the first and fifth episode, were completely different. They were completely random comedy oriented episodes that story wise make no sense and clearly aren’t connected with anything else beyond having the same characters, though with their personalities exaggerated for humorous effect. The first episode is the standard anime pool episode pretty much. The fifth episode is a weird as hell episode where due to some weird magic Rena ends up falling in love with a string of people.

I found the first episode pretty hilarious in how the absurdity slowly escalated from the level of the slice of life sections in the previous seasons to extreme absurdity at the level of outright parody and thus overall I found the episode pretty great. The fifth episode was a bit more grounded while also having a few completely ridiculous elements, but in the end while it did have some humorous portions overall I didn’t find the comedy in all that great and thus found the overall episode only so-so. Though one of the reasons for that is likely that a pretty decent portion of it involved mahjong, which despite my best efforts I’ve only been able to gain a very minimal understanding of, so those that have a better understanding of mahjong may find it more appealing.

In terms of art, the art style and designs are still solid, and there’s a straight up pool episode so there a bunch of new designs on that front which are pretty good. The art quality and animation quality felt noticeably improved in the first four episodes, though there was a very noticeable drop in quality in the fifth. This may well have been intentional for comedic purposes, but I don’t think it landed all that well and thus mostly just felt like it was lower quality. The OP and ED were both decent in terms of audio and visuals, but not as striking or memorable as the OPs and EDs in previous seasons. The soundtrack also didn’t really stand out and wasn’t all that memorable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 26, 2025

AngeVNs

Mixed Feelings

The controversy surrounding the recent Higurashi GouSotsu series was amusing to watch because I purposefully chose not to watch them. I’ve always felt that Higurashi is the type of series that shouldn’t have had any side stories or direct sequels that take place after the last episode—because of how conclusive it was.

For those who don’t know, Higurashi Rei was the first set of side stories following the main story of Higurashi and Kai. Episodes 1–8 of the Higurashi visual novel and their anime adaptations (Higurashi Season 1 and Kai, or Season 2) were overall great psychological murder mysteries with a Groundhog Day-like scenario, and the ... way things built up toward the end was excellent—even if the pacing was a bit slow at times.

Higurashi Rei was clearly the first of many attempts to cash in on Higurashi's legacy and squeeze more money out of the franchise. Unfortunately, for the most part, I wasn’t really a fan of these OVAs.

The best way to describe them is that they’re half slice-of-life fan service and half a brand-new side story that focuses on Rika once again.

The slice-of-life segments are more or less what you’d expect from Higurashi—a lot of characters playing games and trolling each other. But this OVA leans more into generic fan service, with some harem teasing for the main male character, Keiichi. These moments are mostly inoffensive, but since I was never super into the slice-of-life aspects of Higurashi, I just found them whatever.

The main selling point of Rei, or its "serious" story arc, is Saikoroshi-hen (Dice Killing Chapter).

Without getting into spoilers, this is a direct sequel to the serious events of Higurashi Kai, where Rika is put in a situation that forces her to reconsider the choices she made regarding fate and everything that was built up in the first two seasons. Essentially, she is given a chance to live in a supposedly "perfect" world—one without all the drama, murder, and suffering. However, this comes at the cost of losing all the camaraderie, sacrifice, and character growth she and the others went through. Rika herself would also be a stranger to many of the people she once knew.

In theory, I like this idea. But in execution, it just felt like a cheap way to bring back drama. Higurashi Kai had a perfect ending for the serious parts of the story, and this side story felt unnecessary—arguably even insulting—by forcing Rika through melodrama again. The entire point of Seasons 1 and 2 was for her to develop beyond this struggle, yet this arc drags her back into it. The fact that the "serious" part of Rei happens because of a convenient mistake on Rika’s part makes it feel like an even bigger slap in the face.

Overall, the plot of Higurashi Rei isn’t a terrible idea—just something that honestly didn’t need to exist in a standalone entry like this. Given how bad nearly every Higurashi spinoff has been, I highly recommend sticking to Higurashi Seasons 1 and 2 by DEEN and/or the main eight chapters of the visual novel. Don’t bother with the spin-offs—unless you want to lose some brain cells.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 8, 2024

madokadash

Not Recommended

4/10

So this anime can basically be broken into 2 parts epsiodes 1 and 5, and epsiodes 2, 3, 4. The latter of whitch was way better done than the former.


Rikas new Hinamizawa (episodes 2, 3 and 4) 7/10

So without going into major spoilers, this part of the show is done completely enough. It basically deals with a pretty decent premise.
That being, Rika magically ends up in a Hinamizawa that contains none of the bad things the original had. Does she choose to stay in the happy ending she earned, or the happy ending no one had to suffer to get to? The premise ... itself is really interesting, and honestly I wish all 5 epsiodes or a movie were given to explore it, rather than 3 of the 5. That being said, I think its execution faltered twords the end. There's a choice Rika is forced to make and it's left ambiguous and implied rather than shown on screen. The actions she chose to take should have been shown on screen and the story is actively worse and less effective for not having done so. I can get why one might want to go for omitting that scene to keep with the "Rikas happy ending" theme, but doing so takes away from the impactfulness of it, and undercuts the harder hitting scenes from the first 2 seasons. Other than that though, these 3 episodes are worth the watch and recommend to required viewing if you want to watch the sequel series, gou/sotsu


Happy fun time (episodes 1 and 5)
3/10
Other than the scene towards the end of the first episode, which sets up the events of the other arc, everything in these 2 epsiodes were fan service. I get why thematically this makes sense,
(happy fun time ----> Rikas New Hinamizawa. ----> happy fun time again ) because it sets up Rika's choice and the consequences of it. Unfortunately, thematically is about the only way these 2 episodes make sense. The first epsiode takes place at a huge pool party that features a lot of characters who should not have been there but were. Because of things that happened to these characters and the ending of the show itself, interactions feel out of character. Canonically, it does not make sense for the antagonists of the show to be chilling out at a pool party with the main cast and everyone just having a good time. If this was just in Rika's head or a dream it would be one thing but it's meant to be played straight. They could have toned it down and had just characters that would make sense to be there at the pool party having a good time, rather than the entire cast of the show, breaking immersion. They also could have had a happy fun scene without breaking character or immersion at all, which they did repeatedly in the first 2 seasons. The last episode shares these problems to a lesser extent, having characters act out of character and bordering on unbelievable plot points, but it doesn't have to stretch the suspension of disbelief nearly as much as the first one does. Plus the first one primes the viewer for it more, so it feels less out of nowhere. Minor gripe, but a lot of the fanservice dipped into being less than tasteful. There's not necessarily anything wrong with fan service, but it was done so intensely and frequently in these epsiodes that it's out of place at best, and awkward and uncomfortable at worst.


Personal takes: I have no intention to watch Kira, but the first and last epsiodes to episodes of this felt like what meny fans felt like Kira felt like to them. Too silly and fanservicey, and a total break in tone to the actual show that's not done well. If these 2 episodes were a stand alone show unrealted to the higurashi franchise, I probably wouldn't have any issues with them, I'd find it fluffy and passively enjoyable though nothing special. The issue I have is that it takes the story and franchise I love dearly, and makes a bit of a mockery of it. That said, if you're watching Gou anyway, give it a watch. As much as I hate to recommend it (and I'd love to write it off as noncanon) I would say its required viewing for Gou. The middle story is worth a watch too, even if its ending could have been better executed, and the first and last epsiodes if nothing else thematically set up the structure for the part that is interesting. I was tempted to give it a "mixed feelings" rather than a "not recommend" because, again, if you are watching gou I'd absolutely recommend you watch this first but if you don't plan to watch gou or sotsu the good parts in the middle don't make up for the bad parts in the beginning and end. I can't in good conscience recommend something this bad. If you do watch it,consider watching the middle 3 epsiodes, and skipping the first and last.


Overall: 4/10

Its good parts are adequately done, its bad parts are terrible. It frequently breaks tone, character and immersion, so if that bothers you and you don't plan on watching past it to gou/sotsu, perhaps reconsider your watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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