Some of you may have already heard of this anime called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (AKA When the Cicadas Cry). It is a ongoing horror/mystery anime which has been going on since 2006 and is now into it's third season Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei. Many anime that go long ongoing production such as the oh-so-popular Naruto and Bleach have tendencies to develope filler episodes (episodes created to stall the story and are unrelated to the main plot). These anime often get criticized by the anime comunity for this and the quality of the shows tends to drop dramatically in many peoples eyes.
Higurashi is by no means several hundred episodes long like some ongoing anime, but on the other hand Higurashi seems to be the type of anime that couldn't go on that long and stay interesting in my eyes. With fifty episodes out in the original two series and four out so far from the third season, is Higurashi pushing the envelope on how long the anime should go on for?
Here are a few key points I would like to make about the series so far (I'll try to keep it as free of spoilers as possible)
- The original Higurashi included several arcs which told the story in a different way, releasing more information about what was happening around town each time.
- At the end of the original Higurashi it almost seemed that everything had finally worked out right in the world for a happy ending, and then it turned out this was not the case.
- In Higurashi 2, more elements were added to the story which completely turned around what the original had let you to believe. It's arcs focused on getting to the true bottom of what had been going on around town. However what Higurashi 2 lacked over 1 was original content. It was more of an extension onto season one and was in danger of getting dull (atleast IMO) towards the end. In the end, everything really did work out peachy fine for all the characters and it seemed that it would be a true happy ending.
- If Higurashi 3 had been to two what two had been to one, it could be easily argued that the anime was dead by now and it was time to move on. However, Higurashi 3 has taken a new spin on the series. It is not that Higurashi 2 was another false ending but rather a specific event that happens at the start of 3 leads into a very different world yet still in the same town where many original events never happened. A certain character has to get back to her world.
The key thing here is that Higurashi 3 is a very different world where as Season 2 was more along the lines of closing up the loose ends of the first season and leading into a true ending. I believe that Season 3 is actually quite promissing because of how they've set up the new story, there is a new and original mystery and I think that is the key. If Higurashi were to create yet another new mystery would it be able to last four seasons? On the other hand, will this new mystery turn out to get dull towards the end similar to the second season?
Personally, I have high hopes for Season 3. I like how they've set the story up this time around and I hope they can keep the momentum going till the end of the season. Because it has proven to be a quality show already, I feel that the story writers will do this. However, who can really say. Maybe they'll make a fourth season but with a completely different cast and location and only keep the show name and arc structure of the show.
I'm curious to know you're thoughts. Do you believe that Higurashi is nearing death or just getting started?
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