*Just in case but this review contains spoilers for Higurashi Gou*
I have watched a lot of terrible anime, tv shows, and movies in my life, and I can confidently say that Higurashi SotsuGou is not just the worst written time travel series, but the worst written story overall that I have ever seen. It is not because it's the most boring anime out there, it's not because it's just some generic unoriginal copycat, but because of how many layers of fuck ups there are. This show feels like a parody of terrible fanfictions written by authors who have zero understanding of the original works with
...
how consistently it messes up every single aspect of the story, and I wouldn't have believed that the script for this show was written by the original author had he not say it himself in various interviews.
Story:
Like the original Higurashi series, the new Higurashi series is separated into Question Arcs and Answer Arcs. However, unlike the original Higurashi and the author's other visual novel series, it seems that this time around he completely forgot the purpose of this unique narrative structure and how it is supposed to be used. As the Answer Arc to Gou, Sotsu spent 13 out of 15 episodes recapping the majority of Gou that answers nothing that we don't already know in Gou. In the first place, there were no mysteries set up in Gou to be answered and Sotsu ends up being a meandering chore that has no reason to exist at all.
SotsuGou completely misses the main theme and message of its original series. Old viewers might remember but "Miracle" is a prominent concept in the original series that is supposed to be something that you have to achieve for yourself. Remember when the main lesson that Rika learned in the original century-long loops is that you can't just wait forever for a miracle to happen and you have to seize the miracle yourself? Don't feel bad if you don't because Rika certainly doesn't and neither does the writer. Miracle is now something that comes to you even if you do nothing and Rika is rewarded for giving up after doing absolutely nothing. Remember when Rika created the miracle that allowed her to escape the loops by learning to trust and rely on her friends? Said friends are now reduced to pointless incompetence that only exists to hinder Rika and turned into mindless murder puppets from the virus which, like everything else, works completely differently than how it did in the original.
The writer mentioned that he wrote this series so both new and old viewers can enjoy and experience the story but the end product is an abomination that makes no sense to new viewers and is an insult to old viewers. SotsuGou tries to be a pseudo-remake by repeating the same arcs and key moments in the original and changing the ending of each arc, perhaps to mind blow and surprise old viewers while letting new viewers experience them. Except no one is surprised anymore after the first arc and what new viewers experience is a cheap knockoff of the original that completely misses what makes them good. Not to mention that there are seemingly important plot points that are actually just pointless references to the author's other series and it doesn't actually go anywhere. Also, the entire story bends backward to recreate the original arcs but it makes zero sense under the new context and characters often act nonsensically to recreate specific scenes.
I am not going to spoil it but the ending of Sotsu managed to surpass even my lowest of low expectations and they actually ended it the worst way possible.
Character:
Pretty much every single character gets butchered and gets turned parodies of themselves and they never act in character. Like I mentioned in the Story section, Rika completely forgets her main lesson and most of what she learned in the original series. She does the absolute minimum to escape her predicament then gets surprised when nothing changes. I can confidently make the claim that she is the most incompetent looper in existence and no one else even comes close.
As seen in Gou, Satoko remains to be the most baffling villain whose motive and plan make absolutely no sense. She seemingly suddenly stops caring about all her other friends and her beloved brother (yes she has a brother) and is completely nonchalant about their deaths and suffering. She chose to experience a century of deaths and suffering rather than studying Algebra 1 (yes she is dumber than a high schooler as a 100-year-old) even before they try to cop out and make her seem less of a sociopath. The best part is, her plans got ruined because she gets a panic attack from a completely harmless prank. To her, getting paint on her face is more traumatic than 100 years of watching her friends get mutilated and killed over and over again.
Outside of the regular character assassinations that everyone gets, Mion gets a special mention for having her decimation be acknowledged directly in the show. The author clearly knows that he fucked up the character and it wasn't something that he just forgot. He went ahead anyway because no one is safe in Sotsu.
Art:
I personally like the art style but the animation is pretty lacking. The choreography is some of the worst I have seen in anime (outside of the first episode of Higurashi Gou) but it's passable for the most part.
Sound:
Props to the voice actors for being able to sound almost exactly the same as they did a decade ago and the soundtracks are actually pretty decent.
Enjoyment:
As terrible as this series has been, I can't say that it hasn't been enjoyable in the slightest. I do believe that this series is one of a kind and there is enjoyment in seeing just how incoherent and baffling bad the writing is.
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Oct 1, 2021
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sotsu
(Anime)
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*Just in case but this review contains spoilers for Higurashi Gou*
I have watched a lot of terrible anime, tv shows, and movies in my life, and I can confidently say that Higurashi SotsuGou is not just the worst written time travel series, but the worst written story overall that I have ever seen. It is not because it's the most boring anime out there, it's not because it's just some generic unoriginal copycat, but because of how many layers of fuck ups there are. This show feels like a parody of terrible fanfictions written by authors who have zero understanding of the original works with ... |
