Higurashi is a franchise known for consistently subverting the expectations of its audience. The story is told from a lot of different perspectives, with different time periods popping up in some arcs to reveal more details of the overall mystery of the series. Each arc both answers questions and poses new ones.
So Higurashi Gou has been pretty highly anticipated, with feelings from fans that the new series will add new elements to the already-beloved series, perhaps improving some of the elements of the earlier series that haven’t held up. But for many fans, the series has proven to be a disappointment instead.
10 FIXED: Better Openings & Endings
Opening and ending themes are often favorite moments among fans of certain anime series. They give a good idea of what the series is going to be about, alongside some great animation and a song that sets the tone. Gou's opening and ending themes do this very well. The music, along with the visuals, implies the horror nature of the series and the mysterious circumstances that befall the characters. The song uses a lot of string instruments, making for a dramatic tune to go along with the unsettling imagery.
9 RUINED: The Character Development Is Worse
For new viewers, as well as long-standing fans, the character development leaves something to be desired. Instead of slowly introducing information, a lot of it is dumped into expositional scenes to make sure that viewers understood the implications. Satoko, for example, is prone to pulling pranks that are sometimes dangerous. The characters in Gou actually make a point to announce this hobby to the viewers, losing some of the surprise of what happens later regarding one of her tricks.
8 FIXED: The New Character Designs
The designs for the characters are similar enough to the original that it’s still easy to recognize each of the characters. But the designs are also more modern than in the previous series, making the series feel and look fresher. The characters also look different from each other as well, creating more variety in their appearances than in the original series, which mostly utilized the same face shapes and just changed the eye and hair colors and styles between the characters.
7 RUINED: Higurashi Face
“Higurashi face” is a well-known trope in the series, which many fans of the series feel has inspired and informed other horror anime since the series came out.
The term refers to the way that the characters appear during times when they have become unhinged or are committing murders, with distorted facial features and maniacal expressions. Gou utilizes this method of showing the deranged mental states of the characters far less, leaving a lot of fans disappointed.
6 FIXED: It Pursues New Plot Ideas
Gou follows the same characters that appear in the original Higurashi series, particularly Keiichi Maebara, which could become stale for those who have been watching the series since the beginning. But it does present an entirely new story, with a lot of the plot diverging from what has happened in the earlier series. While some fans found this unsatisfying, since it feels more like a continuation, it’s also a good source of new drama and intrigue, as the characters find entirely different narrative paths.
5 RUINED: It Changes The Endings Of The First Two Seasons
On the other hand, the fact that it diverts so much from what happens in the first season of Higurashi means that the plot points in season two are now moot. This works from the perspective of the series being a reboot, telling a slightly different story.
But there are also elements to the story that reference the original series, implying that this furthers the plot, instead of rebooting it. If that’s the case, the earlier story arcs no longer apply to the current story.
4 FIXED: It’s An Easy Jumping-On Point For New Viewers
Higurashi is incredibly continuity-heavy. The earlier seasons require viewers to have watched each of the previous seasons in order to get the most out of the story. This is both because of the sequential nature of some of the storytelling and the fact that the stories sometimes overlap, adding new or differing information about the mystery at the heart of the series. While Gou has some of these elements, it also has different takes on the original story, making it easier for new viewers to jump on.
3 RUINED: It’s A Sequel When Fans Expected A Reboot
While the series definitely functions as a reboot for new viewers, for those who are returning to Higurashi, it functions more as a third season of the original series. The original series tends to change and warp the occurrences in the story, making it harder to follow and obscuring the solution to the mystery. So the fact that Gou begins again from the time of the first season but changes the direction of the story by having the characters make different decisions, makes it feel like more of the same.
2 FIXED: The Animation Is Better
Studio Deen, the animation studio that handled the production of the original Higurashi series, has something of a reputation among fans for producing animation that doesn’t feel up to the standards animation fans expect. The characters are often off-model, with distorted anatomy, and it’s clear that corners have been cut. But Gou is animated by a different studio, Studio Passione, and the difference, and improvement, in the animation is pretty noticeable, with smoother movements, and the character art remaining on model.
1 RUINED: There’s Less Of The Horror In The Art
While the animation overall is an improvement in Gou, there is one element of the art that fans find disappointing. In the original Higurashi series, the brightly-colored animation can suddenly turn to a darker palette, changing the tone in a way that works well for a horror series. But Gou tends to do these scenes in the same bright palette as the rest of the show. One could make an argument that the juxtaposition is meant to be unsettling, but it lacks the shock factor to make it truly scary.