Mar 23, 2021
I will discuss spoilers in this review. I'm going to preface this review with one thing.
I believe this show was made more for people who read both Umineko and Higurashi, and enjoyed both, rather than those who watched the original Higurashi anime. And I respect that people will not and do not like many things this anime chose to do. Very likely, this will be a polarizing entry as it challenges many of the ideals that made the original Higurashi so appealing to a wide variety of people.
That being said.
I loved this so much more than I expected I would at the
...
start. It even brought me back to the original Higurashi anime, which I'd begun to dislike after the sound novel and the manga, and made me appreciate it again. As someone who loves both Higurashi and Umineko, this series /really was/ more than I could have expected or hoped for.
I will admit that parts of this do drag. I feel that is a marker of the fact that this was written with Ryukishi07 rather than adapting from a sound novel as the previous show had been. It is also difficult to navigate similar arcs without the patience for what it may draw out. This isn't interested in the same kind of large world story that the original series was - Gou is much more personal and much more intimate than that, which I understand can take away from some of the appeal of the original. Where the original spent so much time on its many characters, delving into them and their individual struggles, Gou has decided - that's not what it is doing.
This is the story of Rika and Satoko after Hinamizawa. This is the story of two of the most traumatized of the original club clinging to each other as everything changes around them, for better and for worse. This is the story of how they inadvertently and purposefully tear each other down on the way to escape the shadows of their own traumas and fears. That's a bit of a fanciful way to describe it, I will admit, but that is why I like it so very much.
What I enjoy so much about this is that it shows that the sense of fellowship and community that they obtained in 1983 isn't easy to hold onto. I know people are disappointed that it feels like Gou is going against the bedrock of the original show - but I would argue it is only challenging what came before. Those who have read Umineko, I'm sure, are familiar with how dark the series could be, and also how it also challenges and interrogates many of the themes presented by Higurashi. In some ways, I feel this has allowed the writer to continue establishing the difficult road of survival and recovery after the immediate threat has passed. When I was younger, I loved the story of Higurashi and Rika fighting fate in Hinamizawa because it resonated with me, and many others. Now that I am an adult, and now that the team behind the original is older too, we're all seeking something more. More meaning. More answers, because as we move forward, things only become harder, not easier, than the individual moment that trapped us so.
The art is unappealing, often, and there are tone issues that baffle me when looking back at the original anime. I wish I had both more time and less time in this setting, because I always wanted to know more about Rika, and more about Satoko. The meat of it. People may become bored of the show's final arc, as it stands as a perfunctory Answer Arc for the 'deceiving arcs' that came before it, but I did find it both illuminating and enjoyable.
The act of watching Satoko throw away her humanity with each time she kills herself, and how she compares to Rika, in their complicated emotional struggle. Satoko has Fucked Around and will probably Find Out, but I appreciate that Rika is a flawed person, who has inadvertently hurt someone she never meant to hurt. I enjoy the links between this and Umineko, and I love how much it reminds me of Battler and Beatrice's relationship in Umineko - that following thread of promises broken. I find it funny that Lambda Delta is being linked with Satoko, and I understand why some may find it distasteful, but goddamn. You guys. I loved the evil witch gays in Umineko. I can't lie. I'm excited for more, and I am excited, always, for more messy terrible problems in Hinamizawa.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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