Anyone seen this series? Season 1 was called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When the Cicadas Cry) and season 2 is called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (When the Cicadas Cry Solutions).

It takes place in the small village of Hinamizawa, Japan sometime in the 80's if I remember correctly.
It's a horror anime, but a lot of the time it's actually very light hearted and funny, which contrasts perfectly with when a dark turn of events occurs on the Watanagashi festival each year as one person always goes missing, and another is found dead. The anime is structured a bit... strangely. It consists of arcs of about 3-5 episodes, though each one starts off similarly with the same chars at the same point in time but ends completely differently. It's pretty confusing to figure out what really happened, and I'm not so sure myself yet.

Some of the arcs are question arcs, meaning they only leave more questions, while others are solution arcs, explaining past events or showing them from a different side. What's actually causing the deaths is still unclear, though so far, aliens (including alien bacteria), plague-like disease, demons, government conspiracies, and volcanic gas have been brought up in the show, as well as rivalries between the 3 head families in the village of Hinamizawa over who has more influence.

Also what's interesting is it seems some of the characters have somehow remembered things from a previous arc without even knowing where they knew it from, or have had visions of a past arc. So I'm not sure if only one of the arcs is right or if they are all somehow true and somehow connected in some mysterious way.

There's quite a bit of violence in the show, including nails, knives, meat cleavers, torture devices, etc. though it's not as much as Elfen Lied or anything. Season 2 is still airing now. I've seen up to episode 3 of it so far, which is all that's out.

Season 1 confused me, so I just thought it was an ok show but nothing great since it never really explained much, but now that season 2 is explaining a bunch of things every episode I can see it just wasn't completed yet, and have grown to like the series. I'd recommend you guys watch it, even if you don't like random horror, because this isn't an anime whose sole purpose is to scare you. It's more of a mystery, and is actually based on a game where you had to solve the mystery of the Watanagashi festival.

So yeah, watch it! >:O

I've watched season one, it's bloody and grotesque as hell. >.<

Season two starts off slow, tho. <_< MORE BLOOD!

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It hasn't been so slow actually. They successfully explained and summarized everything so far in episode 1, and the rest have explained why Rika was acting so strange in season 1.
I'm finding it very interesting so far. I think if it was just nonstop blood it'd get boring. The interesting and creepy part is how it starts off so innocent and happy, like a show about ordinary children in a small village, playing tag, going to a little one-classroom school, exploring the junkyard, etc. and then twists itself into something violent and frightening.

That's exactly all of that which made me start watching. XD

Mion is creepy ;_;

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Damn I just finished watcihng episode 5. You won't be complaining about action here. Ties in perfectly with that other arc where everyone got poisoned and Rika was lying dead on the alter with crows pecking the corpse, except this time

I don't download Ni-paa~/Hau~~-subs, but are they good?

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I usually try to wait for Shinsen-Subs, but I like Higurashi so much it was too hard to wait...
There weren't any noticable mistakes though, I just prefer the little things Shinsen does like explain what Naraku is instead of simply translating it as Hell.

Oh, I see. I'll go watch episode 5 later, lawl.

EDIT: Watched it.

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Naraku is more like "abyss" than hell...
Anyways, still on season 1: just now picked up the courage to watch this series lol.

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Yea I've seen like the first 10 episodes.

*SEMI-MAJOR SPOILER ALERT IN BETWEEN THE FIRST 10 EPISODES*


Anyway the episodes always gave me a creepy feeling.

Lol, bringing back an old topic...by the way, added something rather amusing to my sig. And yes, you COULD say it's an alternative universe...

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