Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni: The Most Adorable Horror Show

In this review, I will refer to the show by its Japanese title as opposed to its ludicrously brain dead English title: When They Cry. When who cries? The characters? The audience? The Japanese title translates to "When the Cicadas Cry." This makes a bit more sense as throughout the show, the call of cicadas is a recurring theme used to build tension. Anywho, I shall get on with the review!


 Anime in my opinion has never been a great medium for horror. The lack of realism in animation, although great in other genres, doesn't lend itself well to scaring the audience. Live action horror is far more effective because of the realistic aspect of it. The monsters or scary situations/concepts are easier to internalize and fear if it's something you could visualize coming out of your closet or be hiding in a dark corner. That said, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni (I'll refer to it as Higurashi throughout the review) uses a different method than most works of horror to jar the audience.

The characters animated in Higurashi are cute. They really do have the stereotypical cutesy anime look prevalent in more cutesy kinds of shows. This belies the disturbing nature of the plot. I'll get more into this in a moment; I'll start with outlining the plot:

A young boy name Keiichi moves from the city into a countryside town called Hinamizawa in the year 1983. There aren't many children in this small town, but he does manage to find a group of friends his age. He spends a great deal of time with these friends and does many after school activities with them. Things seem idyllic until he hears of a grisly murder that occurred a few years earlier. This murder was over a heated dispute concerning the relocation of the village people to make room for a new reservoir. Every year since the murder, at the time of a village festival, one person dies and another goes missing. This is a mystery that plagues the town, although nobody seems to want to talk about it. They call it the curse of Oyashiro (the towns local deity.) Keiichi wants answers and decides to investigate what's going on. His curiosity results in him discovering disturbing secrets about the town, his friends, and the whole situation.

The plot points are bloody, creepy, and violent; viewer discretion is definitely advised. If you get queasy and uncomfortable when it comes to blood and guts, it's best to leave this one alone. It doesn't bother me as much personally, but there were a few moments where I certainly cringed. When the animation portrays pain and suffering, they really drag it out and make it feel painful. I suppose if that's the intention, they've obviously succeeded.

This show has its share of problems. The narrative is somewhat disjointed and confusing at times. It can also get lost in its own drama and as a result, could come off as somewhat cheesy. The cutesy nature of the characters can sometimes detract from the horror elements, but at the same time have a jarring effect when stuff gets real. The place where this show really shines is the pacing. It knows when to breath and allow the atmosphere to tell the story and when to run.

The music is quite good at setting the mood. I enjoyed the opening song and the "Main Theme." If you want some Halloween background music, they stand alone pretty well. I'll include the main theme below:

This show gets an overall score of a 6/10 from me. It's not a must-see masterpiece, but if you want to see if an anime can chill your bones, it might be worth a try.

~H. Logan Christensen