Anime is a hard medium for horror. So often, the animation is too appealing to the eye to horrify. While there are horror manga out there, such as the work of Junji Ito, horror doesn't translate as well to anime. While there are anime films such as Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue, most horror anime consist of slow-burn psychological stories (Another) or over-the-top gorefests (Elfen Lied). However, among horror fans and anime fans, one anime stands apart: the 2006 anime Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, or Higurashi: When They Cry.

Recently, a new project in the Higurashi anime franchise was announced, to surprisingly little fanfare. While the series has a devoted cult following, mainstream anime fans have forgotten this anime full of fingernail shredding, ax-grinding, throat clawing, all in the endless cycle of Groundhog's Day looping existential horror. This is a mistake.

The Origins of Higurashi

Higurashi started its life as a visual novel developed by 07th Expansion. Between 2002 and 2006, eight visual novels were released, each telling an alternative story about a set of characters in a set period of time in the same location. The games take place in the fictional village of Hinamizawa, where the character we think is the main character, Keiichi, moves. He's joined by his classmates, Rena (who has a strange crush on Colonel Sanders and takes home cute things), Mion (and maybe it's her sister, Shion?), and the young girls Satoko and Rika. They are preparing for the village's Watanagashi Festival, where the villagers pay tribute to their local god.

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But there's a catch. Every year at the Watanagashi Festival, one person is murdered and another goes missing. Inevitably, throughout the various visual novels, we see multiple alternate versions of how these groups of friends are driven into pure insanity. More importantly, a mysterious conspiracy is exposed, piece by piece, until the final chapter offers a satisfying conclusion to the cyclical nature of death and rebirth.

The Anime Adaptation

The original anime series consisted of two seasons: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai. Season 1 adapts the first six visual novels, while season two adapts the last two (plus an epilogue to the last arc of the first season). Upon release, the anime received immediate attention due to the cyclical nature of each arc and the horrific violence on display. In particular, one clip that drew a great deal of attention was that of Rika thrusting her own neck into a knife while Mion (later revealed to be her twin sister, Shion), stares on, first in horror, but then in maniacal laughter as a ten-year-old cuts so deep into her neck her head almost rolls off her shoulders.

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Of course, that's hardly even the most brutal scene in the anime. The entire anime is full of the cute, adorable cast turning on one another in mad psychosis, all ripping and carving one another open. All the while, there are mysteries set up, many of which circle around the town nurse, Miyo Takano, who, in every arc, disappears without a trace. Even more disturbing, Rika almost seems aware of what's happening, referencing the cyclical nature of the events, even choosing to "leave behind" one cycle when faced with the prospect of brutal torture.

These mysteries, set up in the "Questions" arc of the first season, are resolved in the "Answers" arc of the second season, which, on top of looking at the greater mysteries of the timelines up until this point, introduces overtly supernatural elements into a series that, up until this point, arguably was grounded in reality. This is most firmly established with the introduction of the God of the village: Hanyuu.

However, by the end of the second season, the franchise is given an incredibly satisfying conclusion that wraps up every loose end. Every mystery is solved. So that's it. Series over. Right?

The Legacy

With a franchise as successful as Higurashi completed, almost immediately spin-off material was released. Re-releases of the visual novels added new elements, which tied the earlier chapters more closely to the later ones, as well as entirely new story arcs taking place within the cycles of death in the prior visual novels. Three OVAs (Rei, Kira, and Outbreak) were released between 2008 and 2013. Each offered new content, often adapting new material added to later games.

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On top of that, however, there were also live-action films based on the franchise released. Two films, based on the first two arcs, were released in 2008 and 2009. A live-action series was released as recently as 2016, making it the most recent new addition to the franchise, before the upcoming new project, of course.

The visual novels were also adapted into manga and light novels, providing a print version of the previously digital-only stories. The visual novels were also released in English and are currently available on Steam.

Why is Higurashi Scary?

However, as is the case with all anime, its mainstream popularity faded as time passed, though, its fandom continued to endure and hold the entire franchise up as a shining example of why horror can be done in anime.

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The key to Higurashi's success might be hard to determine. Some might argue the incredibly haunting soundtrack enriches the franchise's fear. Many might cite the shocking violence contrasted with the cute character designs as the key to Higurashi's popularity, but that's not a good explanation for why it endured. There is plenty of violent horror anime. Genocyber, Elfen Lied, Corpse Party, and the infamous visual novel Saya no Uta are all incredibly gory -- far gorier than Higurashi. But Higurashi endures where they fade due not to its gore, but due to its mystery and psychological horror.

The early appeal to Higurashi is the paranoia. In the first arc, Keiichi believes that his classmates are turning on him, trying to kill him and carve him open with knives. But there are hints throughout this arc that none of this is really happening, but, rather, Keiichi is just hallucinating everything, that Keiichi is the problem, not them. So this begs the question, "Why?" Later on, we hear about characters who disappeared previously, like Satoko's elder brother. This begs the question, "What happened to him?" Why is Takano so weirdly aloof and enigmatic all the time, as if she's aware something terrible is going to happen to her? And, most importantly, why is Rika referring other timelines like that? Is she living through this Groundhog's Day looping nightmare? If so, why and how?

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But what makes Higurashi satisfying is that all these questions have very definitive answers that enrich the story. Watching Higurashi a second time knowing the answers to these questions offers a very different sort of horror: that of inevitability. This is opposed to Elfen Lied, where, after the shock value of the violence wears off, you realize how goofy and trashy the whole series is. Higurashi endures because it offers complex, intricately woven horror that manages to stick the landing in the end.