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In the mystery genre, it is rare for a fourth-wall break to ever happen between the screen and the viewer. We all watch as the characters slowly solve the mystery, but have you ever wonder what it's like to solve an actual mystery - being a detective yourself to uncover the secrets of the event, and developing your own theories and guesses along the way? Especially in a piece of fiction, where it is common to put the responsibility into the characters to uncover the ambiguity of the setting. What if the task of solving the mystery is enforce into you? You're the one that ... will need to piece it together, and all of the characters are completely clueless until the very end? No one will help you on this journey except yourself, well, maybe some people in the comments will tell you prior to that. Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm glad to inform that I've found the show that perfectly reflects this feature. Welcome everyone to my fifth anime review. Today I will be looking at the first season of Higurashi, the mascot of the Horror/Mystery genre - a haunting story that reminds you the consequences of insincerity, a story to teach you a lesson to never trust cute girls, and most importantly, a story that allows you, the viewer, to uncover the secrets of Hinamizawa.

Story/Setting/Aesthetics

Higurashi is a story that is truly distinct and profoundly done, it follows a teenage boy, Keichi Maebara, adjusting his lifestyle in the new town of Hinamizawa after he recently moved in. He makes a group of friends in his school, and at first glance, they seem like a group of normal and innocent cute girls. As Keichi lives through his peaceful days, he discovers some things he shouldn't have. The village had a dubious past - there were a series of mysterious serial murders, happening each year on the exact same day. There is a belief around the village on a mysterious omnipresent entity, known as Ayashiro-sama, and the villagers claim that the killings was the result of Ayashiro's curse. As Keichi digs deeper into the dark secrets of Hinamizawa, everyone around him is starting to get suspicious, including his closest friends.



Sounds creepy right? It is not one of the most defining horror anime for no reason. So does it lives up to its infamous creepy vibes and horrifying nature? Unfortunately, as a horror, Higurashi failed miserably. It took many aspects that made the original visual novel so intimidating and somehow made it much worse. The creepy atmosphere isn't prevalent, everywhere is colorful and bright. The score is also adapted terribly, they didn't bother using some of the memorable tracks in the VN and none of the anime exclusive tracks sent a chill down my spine like the VN one did - not enough dead silence scenes, not enough cicadas sound. I also can't ignore the horrendous animation that this show has that made the girls look more hilarious than scary if you ask me. Just look at that shot from above, it is uttertly laughable compared to their original counterpart in the VN. If you're looking for a good horror experience, then why are you even watching anime? If this is the best horror experience anime can offer, then the horror genre shouldn't exist in the first place. For a truly terrifying experience, I urge you to read the Visual Novel instead. Of course, if you can't handle the overly long and pointless dialogues, stick with the anime.

In any piece of literature, fiction and non-fiction, it is natural to follow the dramatic structure: every story must start with a beginning, middle, and end. Almost every story goes through this plot exposition process once - the beginning fulfill the purpose of informing the audience about the upcoming conflict, giving them some clues to the mystery behind. The middle, also known as the rising action or climax, gives the audience an immediate sensation of negative emotions. This can be fear in a horror, sadness in a drama, or suspense in a thriller. Finally, there must be an end, an event that brings end to the demise, or the other way around, which is also known as a Bad Ending.

Higurashi created an entirely unique and inventive method of story telling by blending the rules of the dramatic structure. As I said earlier, most stories only goes through the structure once right? What if you repeat the same story multiple times - where each of them takes place in the same setting, with the same characters, but with a different perspective each time?

Higurashi tells its story in a unique perspective by separating it into different arcs, and no, the arcs are not in chronological order. Every time the show reaches the end, usually when a character were to die in unfortunate events, the story resets back to the beginning, in a completly different world, thus starting a brand new arc. This goes on until everyone is saved from this terrifying time loop. Think of this like Stein;s gate, but of course, Reading Steiner doesn't exist in this universe. Meaning that everything that happened before will be forgotten. This sudden change probably made many dropped their jaws, scratching their head wondering if there was a revival or some time leap going on after seeing all the characters fully-alive and well.

The arcs in Higurashi are puzzle pieces, they each give you a piece of the real truth. This truth is something that you must look for yourself. Everyone will have different theories and guesses, some might be right, some might be completely wrong. It is important to constantly make assumptions while watching the show - deciding who is the real culprit is, guessing the origin of the events that happened last arc with the new information you're given, and most importantly, figuring a way to get out of this hell hole. Your predictions might be wrong, but please do not feel bad about yourself. Realizing you're wrong might be even more satisfying than being completely right, because once you've finally piece the story after countless failures, the satisfaction will be immense. These arcs might not be connected canonically, but they all points at one direction; the truth. The characters might not remember what happened in previous arcs, but you do. You're the one with Reading Steiner, which is why the show is leaving the disconnected arcs for you to solve.



I know this might throw away some people and I understand that this might not be everyone. If you're not paying fully attention, you could really miss out on some of the charm behind it. Unfortunately, you will need to think a little. If you're not willing to put in the effort, I think you should just walk away. BUT... if you do decide to join in the mystery, you will experience one of the most engaging stories that would leave you thinking about it the next week.

As the story itself, it is no doubt the strongest aspect of the show, but I still have some problems with it. In the beginning, the pacing is too quick, especially when you're telling the story in multiple broken arcs. Everything moves so quickly, and you will probably be even more confused than you should be. Don't worry, I was initially holding Higurashi as a 6/10 for the first half, but the story really starts picking up in the latter half. When things are starting to make sense, the story is much easier to follow, making the last 3 arcs the true highlight of the show, since the last 3 arcs were supposed to be the answer arcs anyways.  Basically, the first half can be a pain to get through, you will be constantly scratching your head and wondering why everything falls out of place. I personally didn't like the first half, and there is a huge chance that you won't as well, but if you can withstand it, it is worth for the amazing revelation at the latter half. The last 3 arcs are all related to the first three, and it gives you even more clues to the truth. After 15 episodes of complete mind fuckery, I'm guaranteed that you will feel incredibly SATISFIED when you find some of the answers you've been looking for in the answers arcs.

Characters



Who is the Yandere Queen? Do I hear Gasai Yuno at the back of your head? Well, clearly someone haven't seen Higurashi. The characters in Higurashi.... well, other than their insanely strong Yandere appeal, they are nothing to cry home about. Higurashi is not a character-driven story, the characters are nothing but plot convenience and development. There isn't any noticeable character development anywhere, maybe except for Rena. Although I did appreciate the sudden shift in character perspective - we get to see the story in the eyes of different characters. In the fifth arc of Higurashi, the protagonist shifted to Shion and then shifted again to Rena in the last arc. As a result, it creates an effective method that allows the viewer to answer some of the questions that are unresolved, since seeing the story with just one eye makes it difficult to absorb all the secrets.

For the characters themselves, they tend to struggle from the lack of originality and connectivity. None of them are amazing well done, but they are not overly filled with cliche personalities either. Don't expect some Evangelion character depth from this, because there isn't much to explore around these guys. The heavy focus of this show is the story, and the characters are only there to supplement the mind-warping story.

Final Verdict:

I'm already loving Higurashi just from the first season alone. What we have as a first season, is a suspenseful tale of mistakenly knowing more than you should, the consequences of being insincere, and the resulting fear of someone seeing through your lies. Higurashi plays with you, forcing you to theorize what is happening on the screen, because it does not show you the answer. This story telling is unique and subversive from its genre, because the pure satisfaction that is waiting ahead once you're fully pieced the story together will be immense. Unfortunately, Higurashi lacks aesthetics and thematic value - the animation is low below subpar quality, and the show does not explore any depths. Higurashi is a pure plot-driven story, there isn't any profound ideas or deep characters. In other words, Higurashi is not a "smart" show.

The first season ended well, and makes for a perfect transition to the second season. We've been given the basic foundation of the story - at this point, we know the multiple possibilities of who the culprit is, we understand the origin of the village, and why do some supernatural events occur. Now we have some clues on the answer that lies ahead, it is time to explore even deeper to the deepest realm of Hinamizawa.


Higurashi will receive a subjective rating of 9/10, a rating that considers Higurashi a show that is definitely worth your time. This will conclude my review on Higurashi, I will definately check out the second season sooner or later. See you guys soon and thank you for watching.

WARNING: Review Contains Spoilers of the show. (won’t reveal anything big like a character’s death, but I will mention some plot twists in the show.)


Charlotte is in my opinion a show that is not necessarily great, but isn’t bad either. There are some things the show did great, but there are also many flaws. To give a short understand of the story, a meteor in the sky crashed into Earth and gives children special powers that won’t develop until they reach teen age. So some of you might think that this is similar to X-men, copying the idea of having mysterious people with powers. In ... fact, the plot of this show is not something you would call “original” or unique, as we can also see a huge similarity between this show and Angel Beats (well they are both created by the same studio). However, I do think this show is a lot better than Angel Beats. Well we’re not here to differentiate the two so let’s move on.

What I did like in the show is that it kept me entertained throughout all 13 episodes because of some of the interesting elements in Charlotte such as plot twists and plot confusion being added throughout the second half of the show; which is good in order to avoid the repetitive of events in the first half. They even added some time-travel to it similar to Steins;Gate and Madoka Magica, thus adding an interesting shift of tone to the stor . Although the concept of “continuously going back in time to save someone you love” had been used plenty of times in other shows, it’s still great to see it in something like Charlotte where it is kind of necessary in order for the show to be somewhat unique.

My favorite part of the show is definitely episode 7 because this episode did a 180 degree on Otosuka’s character and I can feel the despair out of him of losing someone you love most. His depressed state and his limitation of nutrition were presented brilliantly and somehow it was the most enjoyable episode for me. Seeing this different personality of someone you know can be unusual, but at the same time fun and it improved my overall experience of the entire show.

Last good thing about the show is the beautiful art style by P.A Works and Nao Tomori as a character, especially the student council room; it is probably the most nicely decorated room animated I’ve seen so far. The characters themselves were also pleasant to look at, the best character design being Nao because I like her unique character’s design with the white hair and a Lolita but not exactly body shape. Her personality is also unique as well and I had a hard time telling if she is either a Kuudere or a Tsundere. This proves that she is so unique that you can’t even classify her as one of the “anime female tropes”.

Well I ran out of good things to talk about, so time to get to the critque (which is way longer). For me, there are several problems with the show and the story. In the first few episodes, the show follow a more episodic slice of life compared to what happens later on. Every time, the four main characters (watch the show to know who they are) would complete the mission by the end of the episode and a new one will be given to them the next one. The show basically repeats itself like this until around episode 7; it makes the show incredibly repetitive and feels like it doesn’t progress the plot or develop the characters at all. Additionally, the show tries to force some contrived emotional moments that doesn’t really affect me because they tends to introduce a character and kill it off on the same episode. A good example of this would be Misa from episode 4. She is a character that wasn’t even introduced in the beginning but at the MIDDLE. With only 12 minutes of screen time, no wonder why I didn’t gave a shit when she died. So yea, the first 6 episodes can be kind of boring, especially comparing to other anime, but it is not necessarily “boring” as a media in general.

Another issue is that the contrived plot twists and the immense amount of plot complexity also hinders the experience for me. Everything after episode 9 felt like a coincidence with no previous hints or mention of the event and there was a lack of build up into meeting someone important like Yu’s brother. He kind of just appeared out of nowhere and said: “hey I’m supposed to be the brother that Yu never mentions before, but since I’m here now and I can also time travel, therefore you should care about me.”. As I said earlier, the time travel part did add an extra kick to the show, but it’s not the best they can do because it’s too fast paced. Same as other parts of the second half of the show where many events happened way too quickly for me to grasp on to the show and care about it much. And now I ran out of bad things to say, so I guess I will conclude this review.

Charlotte is an anime that started off as a rather generic show, it is a slice-of-life of 4 high school students saving other people lives. The highlight of the show is definitely the shift of tone at episode 6 and 7; also the mass revelation of the origins behind the “special power”. Although the later of the show did get more dark and dramatic, the pacing could’ve been better and the story should’ve been less contrived and sudden. Despite my review being filled with criticisms, I personally enjoyed Charlotte quite a bit and at the end, anime is all about having fun while watching it. So, I will be giving the show a score of 7/10 and would recommend this show if you’re interested in an anime with intriguing plot twists and shock values or want something similar to Angel Beats.