Season Overview

Higurashi: When They Cry – Sotsu (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sotsu / ひぐらしのなく頃に卒) is the second season of the revived Higurashi series. It completes the story which started in Gou, and I think it was actually able to salvage the story in a lot of ways.

Before I get into the spoilers of Sotsu, what does sotsu mean, anyway? Sotsu (卒) just means graduation. And in case I didn’t mention it in my review of Gou, gou (業) is basically the result of someone’s fate, karma, or destiny.

Now, for the spoilers. The majority of Sotsu revisits the same exact events from Gou up until the end, which is where the two seasons really diverge. But, the twist this time around is that it’s following Satoko Houjou as the protagonist.

Why does that matter? Because this season shows us that Satoko was actually the one behind all of the misfortune Rika was experiencing in the first season. Every time someone went crazy in Hinamizawa and Rika died and was reset as a result, Satoko was the one pulling the strings.

And, no, I didn’t think the fact that we effectively went through all the arcs for a second time was boring. There was a new dimension in play this time around that kept things interesting.

Toward the end of Gou, Rika is finally able to make it out of Hinamizawa and goes to St. Lucia with Satoko (before being reset once again). That doesn’t happen in Sotsu. Rika never makes it out of Hinamizawa this time around.

Instead, after revisiting all the previous arcs, we get a new arc that features the battle between Rika and Satoko over their shared fate. Rika is backed by the power of Hanyuu, while Satoko is backed by the power of Eua.

Vastly Superior to Gou

With the exception of the final two episodes, which I’ll discuss in the next section, I think Sotsu is vastly superior when compared to Gou. However, I have to admit that Sotsu probably wouldn’t be nearly as good without Gou having laid the groundwork.

I didn’t like Gou, and I don’t feel like that’s an unpopular opinion despite what you might think when looking at its average score on MyAnimeList. But, now that I’ve finished Sotsu, I’ve begun to view Gou as a necessary evil. It sets up all the arcs so that Sotsu can come in and tie them all together.

In that respect, I do appreciate Gou more now that I’ve watched Sotsu. But I still think Gou is a 5/10 anime. Sotsu actually fixes most of the major issues I had when watching Gou — such as the fact that the plot seemed to be all over the place.

With the introduction of Satoko as the main villain of the series, all of the various arcs finally make sense as a cohesive unit. I believe I complained about the source of Hinamizawa Syndrome changing every episode in my review of Gou.

At one point it was supernatural, then it was caused by a virus, then the Japanese military intelligence was involved, etc. We now know that it took on all these different forms based on the personal beliefs of whoever Satoko injected in that particular arc.

If Satoko injected someone who believed in Oyashiro-sama’s curse, then their psychosis would reflect that.

The only real problem I see with setting up the series in this fashion is that it leaves Gou as an extremely off-putting experience. I wouldn’t blame someone for dropping the series before they get to Sotsu.

The Final Two Episodes

Everything good I had to say about Sotsu so far doesn’t really apply to the final two episodes of the season. The second to last episode was a montage of Rika and Satoko having a superpower battle. And the last episode saw them simply make up and become friends again, which seemed way too easy.

I shouldn’t really need to explain why Rika and Satoko suddenly having superpowers and fighting in a shounen battle manga-style brawl felt out of place. But, this fight also seemed to go against some of the pre-established lore of the series.

For example, during the montage, we get a bunch of scenes of Rika and Satoko fighting over — and using — the sword that supposedly kills time-loopers for good. It’s even implied that the reason we’re getting a montage is that they’ve killed each other multiple times with it. So why are they coming back?

After the montage, once their fight is coming to an end, that’s when everyone seemingly remembers that the sword will kill them for good. Is the series trying to imply that all those other times they killed each other without the sword despite having it in their hands?

And, as I already mentioned, the way they made up seemed like it was just way too simple. They kind of quasi-compromised, with each one simply vowing to make the other see their side. Isn’t that what they had been doing and failing before this battle began?

I also didn’t really think the whole Hanyuu/Eua thing was resolved well either. Basically, Sotsu was good for most of its run because it expanded on Gou in the way it needed to. But then the ending went off the rails and felt like it was wrapped up too quickly.

Conclusion

Overall, I give Higurashi: When They Cry – Sotsu a 6/10. It would have been a 7/10 if the ending was better, but that brought it down. I probably would have preferred if the end of this season went to St. Lucia like the first. I actually thought that was the best part of Gou.

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Series Overview

Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou / ひぐらしのなく頃に業) is an anime series that falls under the tags horror, thriller, mystery, psychological, supernatural, and dementia. However, I would argue that dementia is the only tag that really applies.

Everything about this series is confusing, from the plot to what the anime is even supposed to be in the first place. When it began airing, it was advertised as a remake of the original Higurashi series. However, a few episodes in, this was revealed to not actually be the case.

It’s also not a sequel to the original series. Instead, Higurashi – Gou is more of an alternate version of the series that does its own thing. And, rather than being newcomer friendly as initially advertised, it includes important scenes from the original series in a different order that spoils the original.

So, if you’re new to Higurashi (like me), then you may not want to start with Higurashi – Gou. Unless (also like me), you don’t really care that watching Higurashi – Gou first is going to spoil the original series.

Anyway, if you don’t know, the basic plot of Higurashi – Gou is that there’s a small Japanese town in the mountains and every year two people go missing. One person is eventually found dead, and the other is never seen again.

I guess the story is kind of about solving the mystery of what happens to these people. But at the same time, it’s not at all. It’s more like there’s “something” happening in the town that leads to these events every year and sometimes different people try to stop whatever that “something” is without knowing what it is.

Like I said at the start, this series really doesn’t make sense. I don’t even understand what the story it’s trying to tell is.

Main Characters

Of the six main characters of the series, Keiichi Maebara is the only boy. He’s the new transfer student who effectively stands in for the viewer because he’s the only outsider in the group. Everyone else grew up in Hinamizawa and knows about its dark history.

Rika Furude is one of the two youngest members of the group along with her best friend Satoko. Generally, Rika is a fairly quiet girl who gets good grades and always says the proper things. She’s also the shrine maiden for the local deity Oyashiro-sama.

Rena Ryuuguu is the same age as Keiichi and has a crush on him. That and the fact that she’s obsessed with KFC Colonel statues are basically her defining character traits. She can get a bit extreme when either of those things are involved.

Satoko Houjou is Rika’s best friend and at some point in the series, we learn that the two of them actually live together. I don’t remember if Rika’s family situation was explained much, but Satoko doesn’t come from the best household. She also loves playing pranks on people — particularly Keiichi.

Shion Sonozaki is the oldest girl in what I’ll call the “core group” that the previous characters are all a part of. She’s the leader of their after school club, which is all about playing games together. She always comes up with punishments for the game losers.

Finally, we have Mion Sonozaki, Shion’s twin sister. Mion makes absolutely no sense to me. Despite being Shion’s twin, Mion doesn’t attend school, and nobody questions it. She also carries around a handgun (she’s a minor), and nobody questions that either. I’m still not sure if she’s real.

Higurashi – Gou Doesn’t Make Sense

If you don’t want to be spoiled, skip to the conclusion of this review. Though, to be fair, the series makes so little sense that I’m not really sure being spoiled is possible (to an extent). But, what I say here may spoil the original Higurashi in a big way.

The part of the series that makes the least sense to me, and is mostly why I didn’t like Higurashi – Gou, is the mystery surrounding Hinamizawa. Originally, we were told that the murders and missing people had to do with the curse of Oyashiro-sama.

That was a fine explanation that lent itself to the supernatural horror aspects of the series. However, the story surrounding the murders and disappearances changed every few episodes. And there didn’t seem to be any real explanation for this.

The curse of Oyashiro-sama transitioned into not actually being a curse at all. Instead, it was people holding grudges about a dam project from decades earlier. So that removed the supernatural aspect of the mystery and made it a normal murder mystery.

But, then Oyashiro-sama came back into the picture as we learned that people could be possessed by her. The possessed would kill someone and then disappear forever. However, it didn’t stop there.

Eventually, the story became that there’s actually no curse, but instead a virus that causes people to go crazy. And it was later added that the military was involved in the virus. Then, on top of that, multiple other military groups began fighting a war over possession of the virus.

Oh, and there are also actual deities that let people loop through time for their own personal gain. This seems to have nothing to do with the curse, murders, virus, etc. I guess the author just wanted to throw time travel into the mix.

Conclusion

Overall, I’d say that Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou is a 5/10. I would give it a lower score, but for now I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt. There’s a sequel season coming at some point, so maybe that will explain everything nicely. I doubt it, but maybe.

I do think there are some parts that are very good, though. Nothing to do with the story or writing. But the character designs were good (done by the same character designer as Monogatari and The World God Only Knows). And the OP song is a bop.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Senpai tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the second season is available now.