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First, this is not Hayao Miyazaki, This is Gorou Miyazaki, let's not compare Hayao's movies with Gorou, I don't think is fair. Second this is Studio Ghibli 1st full CGI animated feature, meaning that everything, from animation to assets had to being done from scratch, and I remember hearing that the crew was also new with 3D software and It shows, there are things aesthetically that could be better, but I don't think they are in a bad direction and if Studio Ghibli decides to make another CGI movie I do have hopes that they did learn something from their first experience and they'll make ... It better next time. The movie isn't bad, but It does leave a lot to desire. The movie ending on a cliff-hanger without any news about a second part doesn't help the case. With all this information, It's alright, is not a memorable movie, but It was entertaining.

THIS IS NOT A REMAKE!

Now that we took that out of the way let's start with the review. I was open minded with the idea of a sequel, I was interested to know what happen to make everything go back, AGAIN, but going through every episode I started slowly to feel that the only point of this season was to bring back the characters, make a lot of gore and deliver a poorly excuse for what is happening, sorry but if you gonna make a sequel for a story that already ended, at least give us a good reason to do so.

SPOILER FOR CONTEXT:
After ... the mystery is solve, the town, the people and every character got out of it alive, Rika, finally get her freedom from the loop and can live again like a normal kid, her dream is to leave the town that holds a lot of bad memories to her and she wants Satoko to go with her to a really high class school for girls only. Satoko and Rika study really hard, get in the school, but Satoko can't keep up and she feels how Rika fits better than her in that school living her feeling lonely.

Satoko manages to get Rika's powers to get in to loops after visiting the old shrine from their town and tries to use it to repeat everything to make it so Rika doesn't go to that school, but Rika won't change her mind so Satoko looses her grip and starts going into loops to torture Rika until she submits to love the town again to live there forever with her.

OPINION:
I respect the work done in this anime, you can see an effort in the animation and the art, but I can't deny that in the future I will remember "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni" for wat it was. In my opinion, this anime it's just fanservice and I don't recommend it.

I think is important to clarify this in the beginning. The anime isn't finished and it will never be. If still you want to watch it (Something that I recommend) I'll say to watch until episode 84, beyond that, read the manga or just leave it.

The show do well on hook you with the basketball theme and I really wanted to learn and play it. Every match hypes you short of like when you see Rocky fight in the end of his movies and you want to shout "Go Rocky!" and I can tell that I almost didn't notice that they were so many episodes ... thanks to the good flow of the story.

The characters are interesting and in variety and not only inside the main character team, other teams characters are also interesting and important and it makes it feel really open and appealing (With an exception that I'll mention later).

The ost is good, it seams that there are not too many tracks or maybe they repeat too much the same ones to make it seem like that, but they are good tracks. The OPs and ENDs are between the classics, mostly OP 1, END 2 and 4.

The art style, from the original manga made by Inoue, Takehiko is amazing and as a artist myself and seriously want to check it out. The animation by the other hand is really good, some times they recycle from old episodes but I appreciate how good the players move during the match doing fakes, jump shoots, dribbling...

NOW THE BAD!!

I hate characters like Hanamichi, is the cliche of an idiot with talent that take it too over his head and is always acting like a fool making himself look bad, but it doesn't matter because is the main character and because of him, the team is motivated. I get it, it's his charisma and is funny and I'll admit it, I laugh at it, but after the half of the anime it started to be annoying. So many times I thought after loosing against his rival he would actually change his attitude, but he didn't and that what I didn't like about the anime.

I don't remember how I ended up watching this anime, but I fucking glad I did.

The story... Is the day a day life of a group of girls student just having fun and making music while going through normal life problems, there is not much to it but what really got me is that, just a bunch of girls having fun, been silly and doing music. The characters are amazing and you will love every single one of them, the original sound track is more of a accompaniment to the scene and there is not to much to say about it.

I would recommend this anime ... if you are looking for a funny slice of life and music anime.

Is the anime that everybody recommended to me when I started watching anime and the one I recommend always to every one that starts. It's one of those things that are made and doesn't need to be redone because is already perfect.

Pros:
The story is simple, but what matters here is the execution and it's phenomenal, the characters are great and really interesting to follow. The music is a master piece, there is no a single track that isn't memorable and every one has an impact to the scene that fills you with fillings (I can't get tired of listening to it's ost).

Cons:
It falls in to ... not wanting to end, the second half of the anime shouldn't exist in my opinion and I don't understand why the author is doing more manga about this. I don't know how to express this without making a spoiler so I won't go further, episode 25 is the end of the anime and is a great ending, more if you add the end of the OVA Death Note: Rewrite.

Is a unique experience and if you haven't watch Death Note you should go now.

I know FMA from the adaptation of 2003 and I was a little disappointed of what I watched. Six years later this anime came out with the idea of been more true to the manga and I didn't doubt a second in jumping to watch it. No regrets.

Pros:
The story is rich and interesting, full of unique characters that fill the journey and the end is really satisfactory. The music goes really well, having some pieces that are memorable and personally is phenomenal that I could watch the main characters grow physically during the show.

Cons:
I'm not to fan of having this anime moments when the characters ... became like simplified in post of been funny, because, in my opinion doesn't fit with the feeling the anime gives, but I'm glad that this moments are not used to frequently.

There is one scene that piss me off because one of the villains is monologing when it looks like the same villain is in a hurry, and one of the characters has a broken ability that never uses properly because is too broken and will probably ruin the story.

Beyond that the show is one of my favorites and every one should watch it, is too good to don't do so.