nice writing archon, i feel mostly similar
but i actually view Higurashi and -Kai as a complete one long series, no fun if u only watch one of them
-Kai does have better animations and everything looks smoother
but the most memorable is still the first chapter of Higurashi, i really feel the chilling on my back while watching it, the unpredictable Rena is really scary
for me -Kai is 9/10