Good job on the last Analysis

Well guess it depends on how you look at it. Many versions of the friends all died and the grand total of deaths could be nightmarish if you added them all together. This group managed to survive which is a nice thing.

The only thing I'm complaining about is that I come here and post my thoughts on the series, saying that Kai wasn't disturbing enough, and got pretty well jumped all over for it. For voicing the opinion that I felt there should be more brain-breaking in Higurashi Kai, I get people accusing me of asking for pointless gore?

I mean, I don't mind if people like the series for the moe, or for the characters, or for the club activities, or whatever. Whatever floats your boat. What floated my boat was the disturbing stuff, and all I was trying to convey is that I, me, an individual, thought that Higurashi Kai would have been more entertaining to me had it retained the erroneous focus of the first season.

I still don't get why that makes me a mouthbreathing, brainless equivalent of a DBZ or Naruto fan.

That is very true and I'll stick to it too or my brain will start oozing out of my ears.

For me this series is the ultimate in onion suspense. The gore and horrific events were just a well used tool to really burn the horrible events into our minds so when I got to the end I really did appreciate how much everyone went through.

The way the story unfolded with each telling was masterful.

When watching Higurashi, I was like you, the horror was what kept me coming back for more. Killer lolis was an awesome concept all on it's own which was showcased as the focus in both Onikakushi-hen and Watanagashi-hen. I'll admit those two arcs scared the crap out of me, and I loved it. However, as the first season progressed, the emphasis shifted off of graphic horror and moved on to repeatedly suggesting that there is a reason for all this violence and paranoia. It's their intention to have a small voice in your head asking "wtf is going on" when the characters start going L5. By the end of season one, it's more of a mystery than horror. A progression you should have noticed.

It's not your fault for not knowing Japanese, but 解 (kai) roughly means solution/explanation. To the show's target audience, it's clear what the contents of the show is going to focus on- answering that question. That's why I don't like to call it S2 or second season, because that isn't really correct. It's more like another aspect of Higurashi, some would argue the "true" Higurashi.

No one is bashing you. They're just trying to tell you that Higurashi really isn't about the horror, as well done as it was. You're not wrong for liking the show purely for that part, but that isn't what Higurashi is about at it's core and therefore not the fault of the anime for completely transitioning. Especially when the title (kai) made it clear.

I think my definition of horror is a bit different than what you're alluding to. Maybe I'm confused, but every horror story that has ever interested me has always had a greater mystery behind and/or surrounding the scary stuff, and the plot generally centers on discovering the cause of whatever is happening.

Maybe I'm misdefining horror and that's what's causing this, I'm not sure. I guess if you define the horror genre as a bunch of people doing dumb things and getting messily killed, then I would not be a fan of the genre.

I guess things like Silent Hill, Parasite Eve, System Shock 2, Jacob's Ladder, serial experiments lain and similar stories with mysterious and very disturbing, mind-bending plots aren't truly "horror" by the usual definition, but may be along different lines.

It's sometimes called the "No True Scotsman Fallacy". If your definition excludes all the lame-brained stuff you don't like, then your definition is flawed.

I don't quite understand the point of your post. I already pointed out several different media that fall into a specific subgenre of "intelligent" horror, stories that have complex and twisted plots and rely more on mood and ambience than cheap scares and monster closets to bring the scary.

The annoying thing is that I post about wishing Kai had more scary, people start ranting about how it's not supposed to be scary. Okay, yeah, I understand that. From what I've read about the original games, it's supposed to be a mystery-flavored character drama. That's fine.

But that still doesn't change the fact that 1) personally, I believe it would be more entertaining if Kai had retained the creepy from season one and 2) why does anyone else care? I don't get why people feel they have to "defend" Higurashi from the morons like me who think it should have been more disturbing through the second half.

I liked the second season, I'll probably keep it around and watch it again. I enjoyed it, despite the problems that I saw. Some of the problems everyone seems to agree on--the lackluster animation, the forgettable music (save the OP and end themes which were rather good) and the fairly out-of-place comedic "defeat" of the primary antagonists toward the end.

Other problems that I see people disagree with... I think the second season was too different from the first in terms of mood and atmosphere. It was jarring, almost like watching a completely different show with the same characters. I think they went a little crazy with the moe-blob fanservice; I swear Rika says "ni-pah" more times in individual episodes of Kai than she did in the entire first series. (Though the additional "dark" Rika dialogue was awesome.)

It's not perfect, I still think the first season was better (my opinion) and... well, it's just my opinion. No need to convince me it's wrong; an opinion by definition can't be wrong.

Even with three "2" and one "1" rating, the final episode still shines with 100+ "10" and 30+ "9"
Those people who gave rotten ratings are very much in the minority. :)

I actually voted 8/10, for all the show's faults it was definitely entertaining and kept me interested throughout.

To be honest, I'm also one of those people who consider season 1 to be better than season 2.

However, a good ending did patch up most of season 2's shortcomings. :)

I found season two to be awesome. It explains the problem in season one with depth for those like me who are brainless and don't understand what happened and why it happened.

Anyways, I wonder what season three will be about. I don't think they can prolong it anymore...there is nothing else to show.

The Dice Killing Chapter, for one. Which they hinted at right at the very end.

There is Higurashi Rei, which includes "dice killing", also there are tons of PS2 and manga exclusive arcs.

My guess is Season 3 will start with Saikoroshi-hen and then spin off into follow-up original arcs that continue the story after the events of Saikoroshi-hen.

While many people will groan in displeasure at the thought of anime-original arcs, do remember how un-bad Yakusamashi-hen was, and consider that Ryukishi07 will likely be continually involved with the creation of the animation.

Hoestly, if you ask me, the ending (and Takano's boringtastic flashbacks+magic remembering everything in minagoroshi) WERE the shortcomings of the series. I mean, a good end is one thing but... come on. There's such a thing as TOO good people. :heh:

Furthermore, after reading around here I understand who visited Takano after the credits rolled, but jumping on people who assume it's older!Rika (and that it's completely bull) is really dumb since... It came out of nowhere and all. That either needed more explanation or just to not have happened at all.

In any case, I'll give the last episode a 7, despite the fact I was more "... hahaha what" at most of it and 23 than "\o/ YAY GOOD END" because that's jut not gonna happen. XD

I think people aren't jumping on people just because they think it's older Rika, but if they are a little testy it's more because it's been calmly explained by people a few times in this thread already, but a lot of new posters are coming in towards the end going ZOMGOLDERRIKA without having read the thread. Hell, some people seem to take offense at the mere suggestion that they read the thread they are posting in.

Exactly what June 1983 said and for people who still think it's older Rika...

Shame on you

People are assuming it's an adult Rika because there are absolutely no mentions of Frederica Bernkastel in the anime.

Studio DEEN doesn't get a free pass on this one; adding Bernkastel at the end of #24 was a stupid thing to do since they didn't work the poems into the story to begin with, and you know they really should have.

Again, DEEN misrepresented the series. I'm grateful they did though, because I still think season one turned out amazingly dark, scary and awesome. Kai just bugs me, the more and more I think about it. My favorite episode from Kai is episode 1, the epilogue to Tsumihoroboshi-hen. I personally (opinion here, don't bite my head off kthx) believe that the series could have easily ended there, with a few slight clarifications and tying up of loose ends in the "destroyed" future Hinamizawa.

What can I say? I hate happy endings. =P

I liked it a lot as well. Not as an acceptable ending, but as an introduction to Kai, I think it was brilliant. The questions raised there was an amazing recap of the mysteries from season one. The sense of mystery was never greater than during that episode with Ooishi, Akasaka, and Rena speculating. Almost my favorite, after GAR Shion with an AK-47.

For everyone who thinks it's too happy, wait until Saikoroshi. I know that it's not related to Matsuribayashi, but it's the same happy scenario...with a twist. Whatever they do it season 3, I hope it's similar to Nekogoroshi, IMO that is the optimally balanced Higurashi.

I didn't like Bernkastel's appearance either since I don't know anything about her, but if it's as good a transition as ep 1 of Kai, I'm sold.