Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai

In the small village of Hinamizawa, Rika Furude and her friends live together in relative harmony. Beneath this mask of peace, however, lies a hidden darkness, one that Rika understands all too well. In this eternal summer, she has been witness to unspeakable horrors. Every time the clock resets, Rika must try to find the villain behind these senseless deaths before tragedy strikes again. However, trying to decipher a mystery when only half the clues are present proves time and again to be disastrous, and each time she believes that things will change, she inevitably fails. As the annual festival approaches, Rika begins her descent from hope to despair in her struggle to break the chains of fate entangling them all.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Furude, Rika Main

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Sonozaki, Mion Main

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Maebara, Keiichi Main

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Hanyuu Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Houjou, Satoko Main

Kanai, Mika Japanese

Takano, Miyo Main

Itou, Miki Japanese

Ryuuguu, Rena Supporting

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Sonozaki, Shion Supporting

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Bernkastel, Frederica Supporting

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Ooishi, Kuraudo Supporting

Chafurin Japanese

Oomori, Hiroyuki Producer

Okamura, Takema Producer

Iijima, Kouji Producer

Fukao, Satoshi Assistant Producer

Reviews

Apr 17, 2025

hypertapx

Recommended

Absolutely goated anime. (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
As someone who usually avoids subs, the fact that I was fully invested in kai, (wich saddly doesn't have a dub) says a lot. I couldn't look away for a second.
If you enjoyed the chaotic horror mystery of the first season, kai will blow your mind.

Where the first season leaves the viewer lost in a fog of unexplained time loops, fragmented memories, and characters suddenly spiraling into madness, kai steps in as the missing piece of the puzzle. It all just begins to make sense.

The first season leans heavily into supernatural horror, making the viewer believe ... something not from this world, might be at play. But in kai, that fear shifts. The horror becomes more psychological. You stop fearing a curse, and start fearing people. Which is honestly even scarier.

One of the most surprising and rewarding aspects of kai is the change in perspective. It subtly reveals who the true main character is, and it’s someone you might not have expected. Kai isn’t just a continuation, it’s a revelation. It’s what gives the entire series its meaning and emotional weight. Some arcs are slower and more dialogue-heavy, but that’s where the show really flexes its depth. It’s not about shock value anymore, it’s about revealing character's intentions, causes, and consequences. The viewer gets to feel why things happened, not just see that they did.

Kai is a must watch for everyone who enjoyed the first season. It elevates the story from being JUST a horror mystery to a cohesive and emotionally impactful narrative. It’s smart, haunting, and at times,, surprisingly hopeful. If you made it through the madness of season one, Kai will give it all the meaning you may have thought you needed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by hypertapx (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jul 4, 2017

SuccHunter

Mixed Feelings

Story:

Higurashi became quite a goddamn mess because Ryukishi07 tried to incorporate too many new ideas into his series without the proper execution or build-up.
First of all, it loves being really dark and edgy, but at the same time, it doesn't know when to fucking give it a rest; it has an annoying penchant for dragging out the torture of its characters, as if more suffering and pain = higher quality of writing. As a result, the story sometimes becomes too edgy and takes itself way too seriously to be enjoyable. Whatever comic relief the writer shoehorned in is usually unfunny, sometimes cringy, or even downright ... annoying.
Don't get me wrong, it's completely fine - cool, even - to be edgy. Some of my favorite series are extremely edgy. The problem with Higurashi is that it just doesn't know how to have fun. Sometimes I feel as if it just loves to torture and create a pity party for its characters for the sake of it.

In contrast, look at something like Umineko: it rolls around in the puddle of blood, shit, and guts that it creates, smears brains all over its face, and chases after the reader with its bloody hands like a little kid playing tag. It downright invites the reader to laugh at the atrocity along with it. Despite doing these edgy things, at its very core, it understands extremely well what compassion is; it knows how to pull its characters up by the hand. It knows how to be a complete monster without alienating or boring its audience with the same shtick over and over.


Furthermore, Higurashi has made me suspend my disbelief one too many times . For instance, during many chase scenes, the characters just suddenly stop and start talking to each other, forgetting how to run until the enemy catches up with them. The time loop mechanic, along with Hanyuu, are shoehorned into the story with no context to try and explain away the resetting story arcs. While the writer, Ryukishi07, does explain this mechanic in a way that makes perfect sense in Umineko, it came completely out of the left field in Higurashi. And here, you see, is where Higurashi suddenly makes a leap into fantasy territory when for the entire first half it has been trying so hard to come across as a mystery. This mechanic will always feel off because it's been introduced so late into the story.

Also, a major suspension of disbelief and one of the biggest gripes I have with the story concerns a certain character's actions. If they have been in a time loop for hundreds and hundreds of years, shouldn't they have tried anything and everything under the goddamn sun? Why haven't they ever tried to explore the option of talking to their friends about it, if it works so well to break through this tragic fate? Did they just hold back for a few hundred years because the plot demands it? As a result, all of their struggles and suffering after the multi-verse reveal just seem artificial and unrealistic somehow. At some point, I became completely detached from the story, apathetic towards whatever happens to these characters who I feel have been overstaying their welcome in this drawn-out story.

At the end of the day, it feels as if Higurashi tried too many ideas without the proper writing prowess to back these ideas up. As a result, it fumbles the fuck out of the plot, pulling aliens, diseases, and organizations out of thin air and cooking up unbelievably cartoonish villains to mastermind a very forced and drawn-out tragedy that's edgy just for the sake of being edgy.

Art:

At least the characters' facial proportions don't look like those of deformed polio victims like in the 1st season.

Sound:
The opening is ok but not as good as the 1st season. The voice acting and sound design are mediocre at best and fucking annoying at worst i.e Keiichi's voice.

Character:
I don't even care anymore tbh

Enjoyment:
Ehhhhh It was just ok.

Overall:
6/10 Satoko did nothing wrong.

TLDR forget Higurashi go play the Umineko sound novel it's lit af tbh lmao it's amazing how much the writer improves after writing one mediocre series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by SuccHunter (37)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 22, 2020

Neimaj

Not Recommended

It’s about time I watched Higurashi Kai. I tried watching this on three separate occasions in the span of six years. I’ve been a huge Higurashi fan for a long time now, but I’ve always had trouble getting into this one. After the third attempt I accepted the fact that Higurashi Kai’s first episode kinda sucks. The first episode is a boring slog to get through with the constant talking, and it has this strange white filter that makes the visuals difficult to see. Which reminds me of another anime I don’t like very much, Boogiepop Phantom. Characters will talk for long, long periods of ... time with nothing interesting going on in these dark areas, where you can hardly see anything, and you’re expected to pay attention the entire time while details are being spoon-fed to you. This is Higurashi Kai’s first episode in a nutshell. Luckily, the rest of the show isn’t as bad as the first episode, but Higurashi Kai still has plenty of exposition dumps. Episode one is just the worst contender.

Higurashi Kai is the sequel to Higurashi. No shit. This season of Higurashi explains more of the supernatural angle of the previous season. I am grateful that this season exists. The first season of Higurashi doesn’t have a proper conclusion and leaves more questions than answers. At the same time, Higurashi Kai, in my eyes at least, fails at being a proper continuation of the story. I enjoyed some of the first-half, but it didn’t quite feel like Higurashi to me. I like how the show reanimates one of the previous arcs of the original show and gave it a more positive ending. I got it! The perfect description for Higurashi Kai! “It felt less like a horror and more like a longwinded drama where people just happen to get killed.” That’s perfect. Keep that in mind when watching this show. The second-half is the point where I stopped caring about the story, entirely. Rika talks for eons in this show! It’s like watching a talk show where Rika is the only host and she never stops talking. There’s so much exposition. That’s not what Higurashi is known for. If the show wanted to explain something to you, it would do it in the creepiest way possible. And the characters wouldn’t drown you in dialogue. Exposition is okay. It’s important to inform your audience about what’s going on, but talking for such long periods of time will only bore them. Shows like the Monogatari series get past that issue with stunning visuals and engaging conversations. Higurashi Kai greatly fails at doing that. And some people accuse the original Higurashi of just being mindless violence or shock value. What a horrible opinion. The show is about characters losing their minds and becoming extremely paranoid. The show starts off introducing it’s characters, and everything is normal until the Cotton Drifting Festival. Then characters will slowly go insane and start brutally killing each other. Once that happens, the timeline resets and everything goes back to normal, starting with a new arc. I’m paraphrasing a bit to keep this review somewhat short. There’s usually a specific reason why the characters go crazy in each arc. Time resetting and any other supernatural event is explained in Higurashi Kai. Unfortunately, it does a pretty boring job at explaining these things to you.

And finally, the arc lengths. Arcs in Higurashi Kai drag out for way too long. In the original show, all of the arcs were always four to five episodes long. The perfect amount to tell a proper story. In Higurashi Kai, arcs can range from seven to eleven episodes long! I’m guessing that they didn’t want to use the same formula as before, but it doesn’t work well here. None of the arcs need to be that long. And the gore is also toned down in this season. Probably the biggest appeal of Higurashi, and it’s toned down compared to the original. Pretty sad. This season was awfully lame. I’m glad it exists, but I would never watch it again. It does have a halfway decent conclusion, so I’ll give it that. Most of this season was painful to get through. I’m sticking with the original show, from now on. If you're a Higurashi fan and you haven't seen Kai, I would recommend watching it once just to get it out of the way. My scores:

Story: 4/10
Art: 6/10
Sound: 6/10
Character: 4/10 (Not including Rika, it's a 5/10)
Enjoyment: 3/10
Overall: 4/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Neimaj (55)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Inoue Kikuko Mommies Part 3

by GreatTeacherKen

47 Entries · 4 Restacks

[一] Visual Novel and Kinetic Novel

by OverHitMan

50 Entries · 122 Restacks

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

by IK95CZ

9 Entries · 1 Restacks

Q3 2025 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 9/3]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the third quarter (Jul-Sep) of 2025. Summer 2025 anime which were licensed befor...read more

Jun 27, 2:17 PM by Snow | Discuss (5 comments)

Q2 2018 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 5/26]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the second quarter (April-June) of 2018. Spring 2018 anime which were licensed b...read more

Mar 26, 2018 3:00 PM by Snow | Discuss (28 comments)

	Poll: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Entropy-- - Oct 1, 2007	220 replies	by burakdurmaz4 »» Dec 2, 5:59 AM
	Poll: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Entropy-- - Sep 24, 2007	143 replies	by burakdurmaz4 »» Dec 2, 5:37 AM
	Poll: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Entropy-- - Aug 16, 2007	161 replies	by burakdurmaz4 »» Nov 24, 5:19 AM
	Poll: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) LunarEmerald - Dec 17, 2007	372 replies	by Deago »» Nov 20, 10:03 AM
	Poll: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Entropy-- - Aug 3, 2007	159 replies	by burakdurmaz4 »» Nov 10, 4:10 PM

What Just Happened to the "NEW" Higurashi?

If you've found yourself baffled and confused by episode two... the mysteries have only just begun.

by Shymander

77,565 views

Spoiler

Steam Summer Sale 2019: Top 10 Anime Visual Novel Deals

The biggest game sale of the year is now on, and you can find these visual novels that inspired many of our favorite anime at up to 80% off!

by Shymander

32,422 views