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HIGURASHI GOU POP QUIZ TIME!

Q: IS THIS A REMAKE?
A: You thought it was a remake, but it was I, a sequel! Higurashi Gou starts with the first 3 story arcs of the original material, BUT each has a twist and a different ending. From episode 14 onward it's completely new material, so if you're an old fan and don't want to sift through old stuff, watch from then on. You will lose some clues related to the new villain however.

Q: SHOULD I WATCH THIS, AS A NEWCOMER?
A: Yesn't. The creators wanted to make this newcomer-friendly, BUT as a newcomer, you'll lose a lot of hints ... along the way. Besides its slice of life and horror elements, Higurashi is first and foremost a puzzle MYSTERY. The mystery in Gou is a new one, compared to the one in the old anime/manga/visual novel. For it to work, it spoils some major plot twists of the original material ever since episode 2 (who the real main character is and why the plot keeps happening).

In short: if you want the original Higurashi experience, then enjoy the old stuff. If you don't feel like going through 8 story arcs of the visual novel/manga or watching ~50 episodes of the old anime, no matter how good they are, then try Gou. BUT keep in mind that if you like Gou and want to enjoy more Higurashi, you will definitely go into the old material already spoiled and experience less fun.

Q: SHOULD I WATCH THIS, AS AN OLD FAN?
A: Absolutely, BUT only if you're ready to accept it for what it is: a completely new storyline. The old Higurashi dealt a lot with themes of hope and overcoming fate. Higurashi Gou is, simply put, a villain origin story, dealing with themes like growing apart, learning to let go, and the obsession that comes when you don't. If you don't feel like experiencing that, then maybe Gou isn't for you.

Q: A LOT OF THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, DO WE EVER GET ANY ANSWERS?
A: Higurashi (and the When They Cry franchise in general) has always been organized into question arcs and answer arcs. Whenever something seems off, like murders not making sense, or characters acting weird out of the blue, it's a deliberate part of the mystery. By figuring out the reasons behind these contradictions, you'll get closer to uncovering the answers. A lot of the fun in the When They Cry series comes from wrecking your brain to figure stuff out, either on your own, or through discussing theories online. If that's not your thing, then the franchise is probably not for you. If it is, hop online to Reddit, YouTube theories or something similar and get lost making sense of the puzzle. The first three story arcs get an answer in the latter part of Gou, BUT the entire season works more like a huge question arc in itself that will get an answer in season 2, Sotsu. (Hence why so many people are hating on this, because they're only seeing the question half of the riddle.)

Q: IS THIS CANON?
A: Yes, Ryukishi07 (the brain behind the original Higurashi visual novel) wrote the script. There are a couple of interviews on the Funimation YouTube channel about his vision for the series.

Q: IS THIS RELATED TO THE OTHER WHEN THEY CRY SERIES, UMINEKO AND CICONIA?
A: Yes, but in a meta/Easter Egg kind of way, rather than a crossover kind of way. You'll definitely enjoy Gou more if you know those Easter Eggs, but they're not crucial for understanding the series.

That being said, if you are curious about the other WTC titles, Ciconia only exists as a visual novel right now and Umineko has a masterpiece of a visual novel and manga, and a shitty mediocre anime. Don't watch the anime. Try the VN (there are tons of YouTube let's play videos if you don't feel like buying it on Steam) or the manga.

Q: IS THE ART ANY GOOD?
A: It's either hit or miss. I enjoyed it greatly as it was very close to the visual novel with all the cutesy character designs and saturated colors, but your mileage may vary.

Q: IS THE AUDIO ANY GOOD?
A: Hell yes it is. The old voice actors reprissed their roles, they used Kawai Kenji's soundtrack from the old anime, and the new OP and EDs are god-tier imo. The first ending in particular has gorgeous art attached to a melancholic tune that will tug at your heartstrings.

Q: ARE THE CHARACTERS ANY GOOD?
A: The first half of the anime occasionally sacrifices characters for plot, but you still get a sense of depth to most of them. The second half gets into the meat of the story and fleshes out the two main characters in a wonderfully intricate way. The new villain in particular is hella fun to watch descend to darkness. BUT if you are an old fan who doesn't like their old characters getting an unexpected negative development, then you won't enjoy it. However, if you decide to play along, you're in for a hell of a delicious dynamic between these two.

Q: WHAT'S THE PACING LIKE?
A: I'll be honest, because Higurashi is made of self-contained arcs, if you watch one episode at a time, it might seem like it leads to nowhere. It's the reason I decided to wait after finishing the first 2 arcs while they aired, and binged everything from the start in 2 days. Seeing one arc at a time however and stopping to reassess the info you know and discuss it with others works really well, and so does just watching it all at once and then hopping onto theorizing.

Q: IS THE STORY ANY GOOD?
A: If you're in for one heck of a mystery where you're going to have to work your way around the puzzle pieces, as opposed to being spoonfed the answers, then yes. If you have a more passive approach, and only want to kill some time, it won't work for you. That being said, for me, the story was hella entertaining and I finished the season absolutely stoked for the sequel.

Q: HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO THE OLD HIGURASHI?
A: They're like apples and oranges, both amazing series that accomplish different things. If you want the same story with the same tone, just by a different studio, you will hate Gou. Gou is, like I mentioned, not a story of hope BUT a villain origin story that takes a dark turn from the midpoint onward. As an old When They Cry fan, I found it about as dangerously delicious as binge eating an entire jar of Nutella, and then having a brainstorming session to figure out what led me to do it in the first place. As a newcomer, you will be left confused at times, but might still get a kick.

Q: WILL WE EVER GET A PROPER UMINEKO ANIME?
A: Sotsu will certainly lead to that miracle.

Take your typical spineless male protagonist, throw at him a beautiful, immature and almighty goddess and the obligatory annoying childhood friend that has a crush on said male. Add then the evil twin sister of the afore-mentioned almighty goddess that dresses as a nun (because apparently Japanese people find that sexy), surround all of them with some potentially interesting, yet never quite exploited obscure secondary characters and wrap everything up in a fairly pleasant animation, with a commercial theme song. What do we get? Kannagi –a mediocre show that's not particularly bad, yet never gets close to being good either.

Kannagi starts off of an ... interesting premise –Mikuriya Jin, a high school student, carves a sculpture from a holy tree which later turns into the goddess of the area, Nagi. Because people nowadays do not believe in gods as much and because her tree was cut, Nagi is very weakened, and must get rid of roaches –erm, impurities. So far, so good. If only they'd actually follow that plot.
Unfortunately, Kannagi seemed to have decided that that is not a successful money bringing strategy, and resorted to your typical ecchi comedy/slice of life/high school anime subplots. You know them; Nagi living with Jin, pretending to be his half-sister (giving a chance to reuse the same over-repeatedly gag of other characters wondering whether they really act towards each other as siblings); the love triangle-square-pentagon whatever (after the presumably gay relationship between Jin and his best friend it really isn't clear anymore); and of course, the obligatory episodes of said genre –bra buying, karaoke singing and so on. Now these might seem exciting if you're new to this kind of anime; sadly, after seeing 20+ series of the same sort, you really cannot help but blame Kannagi for the lack of innovation. What about romance then? Pff, that's really nothing but a lame excuse to bring lots and lots of fanservice. Because why not?

In the end, I'd only recommend this series to people who are generally new to anime and haven't experienced all the cliches this certain genre carries with it.

Can an anime that has an interesting story, a well outlined main character and quite the originality not be enjoyable? Well, Mushishi certainly isn't. Mushishi only seems to be useful when you have insomnia problems and want a fast remedy to literally make you fall asleep. Not once while watching anime have I felt the feeling Mushishi left upon me; and I certainly don't want to experience it again. It's as if the series is trying to implant upon the viewer Ginko's personality itself – thus leaving the audience to feel old, tired and lifeless. A single episode of Mushishi might destroy all the lust ... for living you have piled upon yourself in a whole week –making watching any more of it a real burden. It's as if you go to the zoo to see a big, exotic, dangerous animal –but all that animal does is eat and sleep all day. In the beginning, you might find the animal itself fascinating –but at the end of the day, you leave with a disappointed 'after all it's quite boring and troublesome' expression on your face.

A few things before reading this review:
-yes, I am one of those who have played the sound novel before watching the anime;
-no, I will not make this an essay of comparison between the two, nor will I praise the novel over the anime; however, it is inevitable that certain comparisons will indeed appear, in order to explain the flaws of the anime;
-this review might seem a bit unfriendly to someone who has no clue what Umineko is about. In fact, it's much more addressed to those who have partially or completely watched the anime/read the manga/played the game.

Let me begin with a simple assertion. Umineko ... as an anime is a bad experience. Note that I did not say horrendous nor terrible. The Umineko anime is not at all a complete train-wreck, despite all the hatred it receives from the fandom; it's simply nothing more than mediocre. In other terms, it feels similar to trying to bend a very detailed paper figurine in a jar that's too small and ruining it in the process. Yes, the figurine was remarkable beforehand. But no, it did not remain so afterward.
There are two main reasons why the Umineko anime doesn't work:
-adaptation decay (butchering of the characters and the plot for time's convenience) and
-the very little effort Studio DEEN put into making it (bad graphics, right music at the wrong time, wrong character designs, overall wrong atmosphere).

BUTCHERING OF THE CHARACTERS

One of Umineko's main put-offs is the fact that is has such a large cast of characters. You cannot help but forget who is who, who is related to whom, where someone popped out of, what the purpose of a certain character is and so on and so forth. The adaptation from the novel to the anime meant losing a lot of development for plot's sake, and that really adds to the overall confusion. Except for the very main two characters (Battler and Beatrice), almost all the other characters are uni-dimensional. Name one word that relates to Rosa - abusive. One that defines Maria? Whiny. One for Ronove? Cookies. See the point?
While it becomes (or should become) clear after a while that in the wit game of Umineko, the humans are nothing more that chess pieces and the witches are simply devices to advance the arguments, that isn't an excuse. Why should you watch something where you don't care for any of the characters? Again, this is still the adaptation's fault. The original source material, while still keeping a few members of the cast undeveloped (I'm looking at you, Hideyoshi and Nanjo), at least managed to make all the characters likeable – therefore less likely to suspect. The anime didn't retain that; quite the opposite. You end up feeling exasperated most of the time by almost everybody.
Now onto the main characters: Battler and Beatrice.

Battler:
-supposed to be the epitome of manliness, logic and determination [novel];
-ended up being the most delusional of them all (ironically), has huge shoujo eyes and most of the times doesn't make any sense at all [anime].

Beatrice:
-complex character, acts all cruel, rough and unrefined in the beginning, but manages to melt halfway through and create a friendship/rivalry bond with Battler, to the point of finally being able to transmit to him the purpose of her existence [novel];
-complete bitch who takes a 180 turn in the last episode and goes all helpless moe moe kyun for no reason [anime].

BUTCHERING OF THE PLOT

Like it or not, the original Umineko story is damn complex, a complete, subtle mindfuck, in fact. Perhaps that is why it doesn't work that well in the visual format of the anime. Anime watchers are used to taking something literally as it is. Umineko was not supposed to be like that – hence even the unfriendly red text. Unfortunately, Studio DEEN didn't manage to clear the misconception at all. To get to the point:
One of the main questions that arose while experiencing Umineko (both in the sound novel and the anime form) was this – why the heck would Battler try to deny the existence of the witch when she's obviously sitting in front of him, cackling inelegantly and hitting him in the head with her pipe? It seems utterly ridiculous and pointless. A complete waste of time.
However, that is not the case. The novel, having the advantage of underlining concepts in a textual form, managed to clear this. The anime didn't. To explain further on:

Say Mary (Beatrice) is a multimillionaire and Ben (Battler) is a salary-man. There is a great business plan (the murders) going to unfold. Ben claims that you can manage that business with an amount of experience similar to the one he has (logic). Mary claims that you can only do it with a lot of money (magic). They decide to settle this in a game of monopoly (the anti-fantasy vs. anti-mystery game).
Now obviously, in a game of monopoly there are restrictions. You can only play with monopoly money. Had Mary played with real-life money, Ben would have absolutely no chance of winning. That's why, Mary's moves are restricted as well. It's a completely fair game.
Proving the point, basically Battler doesn't have to deny magic, period. He would never be able to do that, with Beatrice appearing in front of him and whatnot. He has to deny magic on the 4th and 5th of October 1986 in Rokkenjima, based on the fake scenarios created by Beatrice. It's logical, it's fair and with the right ideas, it doesn't contradict itself at all, quite the opposite. That is the whole fun and magic of Umineko.

Of course, some might say, how the heck were the viewers supposed to know this with the anime not explaining it? Unfortunately, by the explanations being cut, they simply could not know it. The novel had a lot of detailed sidelong concepts to help the whole logic battle (chessboard turning, Hempel's raven, Schrödinger's cat box) which the anime only briefly mentioned and never insisted on. In other words, a mystery which seemed barely solvable in the novel isn't solvable at all in the anime. That's why, if you're watching Umineko expecting to get a straightforward, definite answer, you won't get it. Which is sad, considering that the main purpose of Umineko was to make you have a brainstorming session. Besides, when in an anime you have to consult additional sources to realize what the heck is going on, that in itself is a problem. I'd say watch Umineko for some other aspects than the mystery, but honestly, there's nothing more to watch if for. And that is Studio DEEN's fault.

EXCESSIVE FANSERVICE, COMPLETELY UNRELATED HIGURASHI ATMOSPHERE, UNSYMMETRYCAL EARS: I'm looking at you, Studio DEEN

That's exactly as the title says. You could feel that the staff members of Studio DEEN were completely desperate by simply throwing a glance at the DVD covers. Or by the excessive amount of cleavage in all the female character designs (minus Bernkastel, who, funnily enough, did have quite the bust in the original material). It's very likely that DEEN themselves realized the Umineko anime was bad as it is; and that they had no other plans in which to compensate that.
Now I don't have anything against this particular studio; but you as a viewer could definitely sense that they screwed up. There is a famous screenshot in which Eva has a huge ear on one side of her head as opposed to the tiny one on the other side. That goes beyond the excuse of lack of funds. It's simply not caring for. The other main mistake is probably the fact that DEEN tried to promote this as a Higurashi sequel as much as they could to be able to milk money out of the fans. Why should Maria have the Hinamizawa syndrome eyes? They are irrelevant and out of place. Why must there be those weird sideways camera angles? And that emphasis on the gruesome death scenes instead of, say, the reactions of the living (much more important to the plot themselves)?
As for the art, while not being overly-pretentious, it manages to be above barely watchable. In fact, it's a nice change from the shiny shiny artwork nowadays. Still, it doesn't rise above the overall mediocrity of the execution itself.

Let's stop this lament at once, though. For Umineko also has certain redeeming characteristics, though not enough. To name them:
-the music. Yes, used mostly inconsistently, but taken as a whole, very good music. However, that is still thanks to the sound novel tracks remixes;
-OH! DESIRE. A perfect ED theme. Almost as if it was the studio's message of 'You want to get trolled? Well get trolled till the end, then!';
-OP theme;
-good, fitting voices for the characters (surprisingly, Shannon's voice actress managed to suit her personality really well).

ENJOYMENT AND OVERALL

Umineko anime can basically be defined as a great story with a horrible execution. And that is not right; for, on an anime market with a lot of mediocre stories with great visual/audio/atmosphere candies, Umineko is exactly the opposite, being hard to digest.
For a sound novel player, it's a complete session of rage, of 'Why the heck was that cut?' and 'Hey, they did that wrong! Bastards!'.
And for an anime-only viewer, it's a 'How do I make head or tail of this thing? Eh, never mind, someone's been killed again' reaction chain.

To conclude with, I would recommend Umineko the anime only to those who are new to anime in general and have only watched around 20-30 series so far. More experimented watchers would definitely be able to sense the plot holes and lack of affective implication. And they will not enjoy that.
(As a small parenthesis, this is quite opposed to my recommendation of the novel/manga; I recommend the novel/manga to absolutely anyone. Read it and you won't regret it.)

Higurashi is a really confusing, complex and difficult to explain anime. Some may view it as belonging to the horror or psychological genre; some may find it as a really weird harem series containing crazy, killer lolis; others may consider it a failure since it doesn't seem to belong to any of the afore-mentioned genres. Considering how much amount Higurashi incorporates, all views are understandable; this certainly isn't a series that's easy to comprehend by everyone. Higurashi is a mixture of mystery, blood, humor, romance and especially nice moral stories; but above all – Higurashi should be perceived as a really challenging logic problem. ...

Basically, there are two approaches when watching Higurashi. You may choose to view it as any other anime: wait for the story to unfold, wait for the characters to develop, wait for the plot to advance. It isn't a wrong choice; this way, you may either like or dislike Higurashi; yet you will probably never get beyond the 'killer lolis', 'aww Rena is so adorable', 'okay, something is seriously wrong with this anime' stage. Yes, you might like, maybe even love it; but you will certainly NOT enjoy Higurashi to its full potential, for everything it has to offer.

If you choose the other road, however, you're in for a big torment. You will be annoyed, hurt, growling, and most of all, you will get headaches from the fake hints; to put it easier, you will be mindfucked. Higurashi manages to do something that very few series have succeeded in doing: involve the viewer by making him interact with everything that unfolds on the screen.

Higurashi's main characteristic is that it's intelligently and elegantly indirect. You are shown almost opposite images of the same place, person or event and left to judge by yourself whether that's relevant or not, whether there's something hidden behind the apparent motives and whether it's the correct portrayal of what's actually happening. What may be the correct deduction of a sequence of events at some point is completely overthrown later on; the theories you may have built in the very beginning, some more far-fetched than the others, all crumble as the story progresses. Because Higurashi is so brilliantly created, it actually presents a lot of fake hints, irrelevant tips and confusing matters; but that's all the more reason to enjoy it in the very end and re-watch it as many times as possible.

To put it simply, it's not wrong to view Higurashi as a math problem. You may wait for it to be solved by a teacher or someone in your class and understand it along the way. Or you may try to solve it yourself, by bumping upon walls and dead ends, reaching incorrect results and choosing the wrong parameters – but having a feeling of a much deeper satisfaction once you finish it.

STORY

Higurashi's story is its strongest point. The viewer is presented a series of 6 of the 8 main sound novel arcs, all beginning at approximately the same point, having certain common characteristics, but unfolding differently. If you are not a fan of 'what if?' scenarios, then this certainly isn't for you. However, if you do enjoy putting the pieces together and forming a puzzle (which lacks the very core—the margins, only to be completed on season 2), then you will find this extremely entertaining.

Checking Higurashi's synopsis, you will see that there are question arcs and answer arcs. Do not be naive. Answer arcs might solve apparent issues, but they only bring up even more questions – related to the overall story. Don't watch Higurashi expecting to see that if 'a+b=c, then b=c-a'. Higurashi will simply say: 'a + something = c, I'll only give you bits and scraps hinting to what that certain something is, so use your brain to figure out the truth, 'cause I'm not gonna tell ya directly.'

If you are to take each of Higurashi's arcs separately, they all follow the same pattern. Each scenario begins with a peaceful, tranquil Hinamizawa in the summer light, only to end up in a diametrically opposed atmosphere. This might sound quite repetitive in the beginning, but do not forget that it's only a means of hiding the true face of this show. Also, don't make the mistake of thinking each arc can be seen individually; Higurashi does have an overall plot that links together the sectioned, secondary stories.

CHARACTERS

Higurashi's characters are all really refreshing, strong-determined and easy to recognize. Although their evolution throughout each arc might seem a bit inconsistent, they do develop from scenario to scenario, which only adds up to the enjoyment.

Keiichi:
Keiichi is a strong main male character. And he should be, considering what he has to face. It's not just unusual club activities or dealing with a lot of girls; Keiichi has to have the willpower to take what he sees as the (often regretful) right decision at the right time. Keiichi isn't a person to back up when it comes to challenges or teasing; if it's within his reach, he'll do anything to have the best possible outcome.

Rena:
Rena is a character that might seem extremely likable in the very beginning, but her patterns of acting do tend to get a bit overused as the series progresses. Rena is a typical, nice, charming girl; however, remember that this is Higurashi, so nothing actually is as the first impression suggests. Rena has her dark sides too; quite a lot, in fact. She's one of the elements that give the series its most eerie moments.

Mion:
Mion is the sanest of all the characters. She's pretty much a walking contrast between how she acts and how she feels. Mion is a game freak and a challenges and penalties lover; that, and the fact that she refers to herself as 'an old man', give off a tomboy aura. Despite this, Mion also has a lot of girly sides, which are mostly shown throughout the second and fifth arc, which center around her and her sister Shion.

Shion:
Most of the times, Shion is missing from the main, 5 club members group. However, she has an entire arc shown through her perspective. Shion's story is one of the most touching and well executed throughout the show; it clearly shows how easy it is for a person's completely logical and functional world to be thrown upside-down through a series of misunderstandings that pile up and make it crumble eventually.

Satoko:
Satoko is quite a controversial character. Most of the time, she acts like an annoying brat that tries to show off – however, she also has a darker side of the story, materialized through the torments received from her (adoptive) parents and the disappearance of her brother Satoshi. Satoko's arc might seem a bit repulsing in the beginning; however, it only gives her the right portrayal of her personality.

Rika:
I deliberately left Rika for the end; she's the only character that doesn't have her very own arc in the first season, and there's a good reason for that. As the first 6 scenarios suggest, there's something more that comes to Rika than her joyful 'Nii~pa' or her habit of patting the heads.

ART AND SOUND

Higurashi's art is probably its only flaw. It certainly differs from the symmetrical, big-eyed, perfectly aligned bodies the viewer might be used to. This might seem like a turn-off in the beginning, but it actually manages to catch the unstable spirit of the anime quite well after a while. Despite this, there is a good part too: a big effort was put into backgrounds; they look realistic and flow nicely, deepening Hinamizawa's tranquility.

Unlike the art, the sound of Higurashi is excellent. The actors did an extraordinary job managing to capture all voice fluctuations, especially the negative inducing ones. Shion's laughter is probably one of the creepiest things you'll find in an anime; Rena's 'Uso da!' will surely give you a chill down your spine; Keiichi's paranoid screams will make you paranoid as well. It's not easy portraying such a wide range of emotions, yet Higurashi doesn't fail. There's also the constant chirping of cicadas that can be heard in the background; hence the series' name. This often compensates the background music, which is only above average. OP theme is terrific, being one of the very first elements that might attract the viewer into watching the anime, since you'll just feel like listening to it countless times; still, ED might seem a bit unusual, since it's sung in (a pretty weird) English.

ENJOYMENT

Like I mentioned before, Higurashi isn't a series for everyone. If you watch it expecting to be a horror, bloody show or just another harem, then you'll probably not like it. Higurashi's main function isn't to have horror, fanservice, tragic pasts or cute moments. Sure, it does contain its fair share of all of these; but Higurashi's purpose is to involve the viewer into a really intricate and entertaining mystery and make fun of him being fooled by fake pieces of information. If you do expect something different, however, you might just discover a hidden behind the curtain masterpiece – for Higurashi is certainly special and extremely enjoyable.

OVERALL

In a world where a lot of anime series offer fans simple, almost nonexistent plots with cliché and predictable characters, humor that's either brilliant or fail, tons of useless fanservice and many other simplicities just for the sake of existing, Higurashi certainly stands out – as being an intelligent series where a lot of effort was put into breaking the boundaries and giving the viewer an overall extremely satisfying impression and enjoyable (though often confusing) watch.

Fruits Basket is a show that might certainly sound interesting the moment you check the synopsis. People turning into the Chinese zodiac animals, dark and mysterious secrets surrounding them, cute, clueless main heroine – isn't that a great premise for a shoujo series? But only as long as it's executed accordingly.

I decided to watch Fruits Basket after seeing how high it is rated. I wouldn't normally watch a shoujo series, since I find most of them exaggerated and unrealistic – that's why, I expected Furuba to really change my opinion regarding them. Instead, I found Furuba to be exactly what I mostly disliked ... and avoided in this genre – with a really more unnatural and forced tone. Do not get me wrong; I do not hate Fruits Basket; yet I really couldn't feel anything else besides disappointment the moment I completed it, and this review explains why.

STORY

Furuba's story is surrounded by a dramatical and emo[tional] darkness upon which Tohru shines like a ray of redemptive hope. Because of that, 50% of the story is actually made up of Tohru's (and sometimes other characters' too) internal struggling monologues that pretty much unfold along the lines of "Is is right? Isn't it right? Is it wrong? Isn't it wrong?". The other 50% of the story might actually trick the viewer into believing that something happens - when it's usually just a repetition of the same overly used gags. There's no beginning, no development, no ending. It doesn't get anywhere.

To put it simply, Fruits Basket doesn't have a plot. Its entire 'story' could be summed up through the following sequence of (randomly ordered) events: Tohru acts dumb yet unbelievably nice which, in turn, causes other characters to also act this way, even though it isn't part of their personality, repeat; Kyo and Yuki fight, repeat; cliché and unfunny member of the Sohma family appears, repeat; Kyo and Yuki fight again, repeat; irrelevant episodic character that barely says a line throughout the whole series has an entire episode dedicated to themselves, repeat; Kyo and Yuki fight yet again, this time in a more dramatic light. Repeat.

Another bad aspect of the story is that it's ridiculously sweet, to the point that it loses all the bits of realism it could have had. It's clear that the creators wanted to have a mixed show, that doesn't only focus on the dramatical solving of tragic events, but also contains its funny moments. This in turn causes Furuba to have serious flaws, both in terms of execution and logic. Many times, the scenes change too quickly from overly-serious to (attempted) pink surrounded, humorous gags that pop up out of nowhere. Other times the events just don't add up. A clear example of this is Tohru living in a tent at the beginning of the series because she doesn't want to 'bother' anyone [thing which the viewer should find utterly amusing]. Apparently, she has a lot of people that care about her (grandfather, friends) yet they never check upon how she's doing. Yet somehow, the rest of her relatives actually go through the trouble of hiring a detective to find out where she lives when they could have simply followed her from school or asked her.

And lastly, in terms of storyline, Furuba is really stretched out for the amount of events it has to offer. Perhaps, had Furuba been a 13 episodes series and not a 26 one, with the same amount of story, it would have actually been entertaining. It's not just the slow pace that pretty much puts you to sleep; there's also the fact that sceneries, lights, wind are constantly emphasized just so that there'll be something to fill the gap and make an entire episode of something that could have been summed up in 5-10 mins.

CHARACTERS

Fruits Basket's characters are clear examples of shoujo genre gone wrong. Not only are they cliché, predictable and pretty much one-dimensional; they give off the feeling of being unnatural. There's something forced into them, whether it's the personality, the way they interact or their role. They seem to just be there for the sake of existing; therefore they don't have any apparent purpose or impact upon the viewer.

Tohru:
Tohru is a girl who's gone through a lot in her life, as it is clearly shown since the very beginning of the anime. Considering the amount of bad events she experienced, you'd expect her to be really introverted and (perhaps) pessimistic. Yet Tohru completely overthrows that, by not only being happy-go-lucky all the time, but also exaggeratedly clueless and nice to everybody, no matter the circumstances. There's a thin line between being inhumanly selfless and being ridiculously dumb, and Tohru seems to be stepping on it quite often. Because of that, most of the other characters seem to half divinize her. There's also another particular thing about Tohru. She doesn't seem to have any ambition for herself whatsoever, so she never asks for help – which brings up the question, is she really weak or is she really strong? Perhaps both, but she certainly isn't realistic or enjoyable.

Yuki:
Yuki is the least enjoyable out of the entire cast. Now, traps are one thing, effeminate characters other – but when some random character in the shows says: “Oh my, there's an interesting young person out there, but I can't tell whether it's a guy or a girl – isn't it exciting?”, that's a totally different thing. According to most of the other characters throughout the show and even himself, Yuki is a guy, though his personality, voice and appearance certainly don't show that. Why he was built that way is uncertain – there are a few attempts of making fun of this, but the humor fails, as usual.
Apart from when he's annoyingly correct by being the right person in the right place, Yuki is barely noticeable. However, his existence does seem to serve two purposes. First one is a Fruits Basket must: have a tragic, unexplainable and never actually detailed past that makes him dark and gloomy, which in turn asks for one of Tohru's miraculous healing techniques. Second is to serve as an opponent for Kyo – which is one of the most reused and unfunny gags throughout the show.

Kyo:
Kyo is probably the only character that actually suffers some sort of development. In the beginning, he's presented as a violent, leek-hating, anti-social idiot. In the end he's still violent and idiotic (though to a smaller scale), but at least he isn't lonely anymore and he's eaten leeks. Despite the fact that Kyo is also a cliché character, he's at least enjoyable, because he's a bit more realistic. Kyo has a lot of personality flaws, but there's one thing that compensates them: he at least sees Tohru as being weird and unhealthy for herself (which all the other characters seem to be blind to). Unfortunately, Kyo is never actually allowed to speak for himself since he's an outcast. It's clearly stated throughout the anime that the other Sohma members can't stand him; yet, as usual, it's never quite explained why. Despite this, Kyo could have had a lot of development and story going on around him. Unfortunately, the ending spoiled everything.

Sohma members+ Tohru's friends:
The rest of the Sohma family members and Tohru's friends were created so they would be as weird and different as possible, yet they all share the same characteristics. Their past is dark and tumultuous so they anchor around Tohru; on top of that, they are all one-dimensional commonly encountered types of characters. Shigure is the pervert, Kagura is the good-willed yet always screwing up girl, Momiji is the cute shouta boy, Risa is the sweet innocent girl and so on. But that's the end to it. There's nothing more to them; yet countless of repetitive unfunny gags are made of their only side. In the end, they are all too many and too similar to remember or enjoy.

ART AND SOUND

Furuba's art and sound are certainly nothing exceptional – yet they're not bad either. They all add up to the unrealistic, sweet and pink impression the show is trying to leave. There seems to be specific effort put into backgrounds and into the (often really big) eyes. The voice actors capture the personalities of the characters they portray really well (maybe sometimes too well, but it's in the series' nature to be exaggerated), especially during monologues or conflicts. The OP and ED were some of the very few generics that I constantly skipped – they were too slow-paced and fluffy for my taste. The background music also didn't really stand out – but is wasn't unpleasant.

ENJOYMENT

Furuba really isn't enjoyable, unless you're a fan of slow-paced, warmth and fuzzy feelings inducing series that stretch too much and don't get anywhere. I expected something funny like Ouran or Yamato Nadeshiko before watching this; yet I was thoroughly disappointed. The whole anime seemed to be a mixture of randomly thrown in characters trying to act dramatic and special, but not leaving any particular positive impression. They were predictable, boring and irrelevant. Also, I really couldn't get over the few logic flaws (like Japan leaving its orphans to suffer in tents, Tohru being able to magically teleport herself from the forest to the cemetery and back to the forest [during the last episode] or the too sudden mood changes from tragic to overly happy).

OVERALL

Even though Fruits Basket had a pretty good premise to start from and quite the numerous cast of characters, it really couldn't get past the “Everything is so sad, oh! Let's bring Tohru in so it'll be nice and shiny” feeling. Furuba is a series that doesn't leave any positive feelings while watching and certainly not after being completed. The viewer is basically left where it all started from – no plot or character development whatsoever, nothing explained, nothing major accomplished. Therefore, it really doesn't get past the state of being a mediocre series with nothing special.

2 things before you read this review:

1) I (unfortunately) watched the series twice, both in airing and chronological order, so I can compare them.
2) This is not a praise Haruhi review, but rather a review from someone who truly dislikes and despises the show. I tried to include all reasons behind this; so even if you are a Haruhi fanatic, please try to understand why I rated it so low.

Now onto the review.
MAL is the place where I usually decide the new anime series I want to watch. Unfortunately, this sometimes proves to be disastrous - like the case of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. ... Reading the synopsis, seeing the nice graphics and all the hype around it, I really expected something great, intelligent and unusual. Instead, I got a really big disappointment - manifested by a boredom and annoyance overdose.

From what I've seen, there are usually two approaches of the show that Haruhi fans support. First is the parody one - TMoHS is supposed to be a light comedy not meant to be taken seriously, destined purely for laughter. Second states that TMoHS is a deep, subtle and intelligent show that has a lot of hidden meanings. I honestly disagree with both. TMoHS is nothing more than a series that delivers to fans what fans want - exaggerated, cliche characters, lots of fanservice, predictability and little to none plot and character development.

Story

You can't talk about the story without mentioning the really unusual way in which the episodes are aired - and that is, not chronological. I admit, this is an extremely intelligent, even brilliant idea - to hide the fact that the plot of TMoHS is basically zero. Nopes. Nothing ever happens; it's just a bunch of high school and spare time events that some teenagers go through randomly thrown in. That's why, it really doesn't matter in which order you watch the show, since you won't miss anything.

Now, the whole 'God is amongst us' concept could have been really interestingly developed - if it wasn't for the characters.

Characters

In my opinion, characters truly represent the poorest aspect of the show. Leaving aside the fact that there is no development in their personalities at all, they are so poorly made, that it's almost as if they were created to be mocked at. In an elegant way, you could say that they are one-dimensional sketches or exaggerated caricatures. In a non sophisticated, yet same true way, you could just call them crappy. Either way, they cut off all the enjoyment the story could have brought. Because they are so simplistic, the viewer is basically able to predict anything that's about to happen in the following 5 minutes with an accuracy of 95% - unless he's an idiot.

So let's move onto each one of them.

Haruhi:
Haruhi is what every teenage girl would want to be - she's beautiful, she's smart, she's talented and athletic. She could be called either a Mary Sue character or a tsundere - I don't care. Because of all her qualities, her life was probably pretty easy, thus leading her to believe she's special. However, she doesn't want to be special only for herself - she wants the world to know how great of a person she is. So far, so good. Then why is she so unlikeable? Well, Haruhi's way of proving she's something else is definitely WRONG.
If there was one adjective I had to pick to describe Haruhi, then I'd probably choose aggressive. Haruhi is aggressive in everything. Her speech is aggressive, her ideas are aggressive, her way of waving her hands is aggressive, but most important of all - her relationships towards other people is aggressive. She has no value of human morals whatsoever, considering everybody her pawns. Therefore, Haruhi thinks she is allowed to do everything just because she's able to. I honestly waited throughout the whole series for someone to slap her, disagree with her or at least spark the tiniest bit sense of reality into her. Unfortunately, there was no positive development at all. Haruhi started out as a perfect, bossy bitch and ended up as an even more bitchy one, receiving several ego boosts as the series advanced due to her talented, almighty nature.

Yuki:
Yuki could as very well be replaced by a broken alarm clock that rings when it shouldn't or by an old, rusted door and there would hardly be any differences. 90% of Yuki's actions are static - she's just, well, there, reading a book. (The climax of Yuki's passiveness is reached during episode 14, when the viewer is shown 5 minutes in which basically all she does is change the page while voices full of references echo on the school corridor. That's 5 freaking minutes of NOTHING. Yet I, as a viewer, should find this utterly amusing.) The rest 10% of Yuki's actions make absolutely no sense. She's just programming computers or fighting cute aliens while being equally cute, silent and moe.

Mikuru:
Mikuru's only purpose in this show is to bring fanservice. Lots and lots, if possible. Mikuru has this high-pitched, squeaky scream and this shy personality which enables her to make all fanboys fall for her. She's like a sickening cute, fluffy hamster that starts squealing every time she's touched (and she sure gets touched a lot, mind you.) Every once in a while, she might give you the unpleasant surprise that she's not actually a commercial item and she can exit her tormented animal state too and be human - by speaking.

Koizumi:
I haven't read the original novels so I can't tell for sure what role Koizumi plays in them - but to me, it seems as the creator of TMoHS had, at some point, reached a pinch. He had to create a new character. Therefore, his line of reasoning was probably something like this: "Hey, I already have 3 extremely moe and likable female characters. I should make a guy too, so the female audience would be pleased. Yeah, yeah, I should make a guy - as elegant and charming as possible." Thus Koizumi was born.
Basically, unless you're a crazy fangirl or something similar, you'd barely be able to notice Koizumi - I, for once, kept forgetting his name all the time. To be honest, the only time I acknowledged his existence was when he kept staring at Kyon's hair in the middle of a mole fluttering in the ocean breeze. I thought it was the most irrelevant and repulsing thing TMoHS had brought so far.
Koizumi serves as the voice through which the strange events occurring around Haruhi are explained. Translation: his speeches are long, boring and put you to sleep. When he talks, he talks. When he doesn't talk, he still talks.

Kyon:
Kyon is a sword with two edges. On one hand, he's really sarcastic, being quite innovative to the ordinary guy genre - thus proving to be the only aspect that might seem slightly interesting during the series. On the other one, he's extremely unlikable due to the fact that he doesn't take any action at all - unless forced by Haruhi. Kyon was the viewer's last hope of Haruhi redemption - yet he fails miserably, by making her even worse than how she actually started off.

Art and Sound

Art and sound are probably the only positive aspects of the show. TMoHS manages to create a pretty good atmosphere - the movements are flowing easily, the colors are bright and clean, the background music fits in - even though it doesn't stand out as more than ordinary. The OP and ED are either really addictive or annoying to the core - I'm more inclined to the latter. Voices are OK, the actors managing to catch each character's personality - which only adds up to how you, as a viewer, perceive them. Overall, no major problem.

Enjoyment

Zero. Zero enjoyment. I can't quite comprehend how a normal, rational person can watch a show where the characters are horrible and the story is predictable - and, at the same time, enjoy it. Haruhi is a mediocre anime for the masses. It was meant to be liked by all those who want to stand out but have no means of doing so. I honestly expect much more from my anime when I watch it. I want to be hooked or at least slightly entertained. Leave aside the fact that I constantly kept staring elsewhere asking myself 'when will this crap be over?'; I couldn't even grin ONCE throughout the series. That's how uninteresting it was.

Overall

When rating, I usually consider two aspects. One is enjoyment; the other is the effort that I feel the creators put into the certain anime. Animation-wise, KyoAni really overdid itself. Plot-wise, it was a total wreck.

Therefore, I really cannot rate TMoHS more than 4 out of 10.