And to open the ceremony, we have...
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni aka The Moment the Cicadas Cry
As I try to recall this anime, I am cringing with every memory. Yes, it is a bloodbath but no, I am not wincing because of the fantastic gore or mental torture that the series supposedly portrays. There is simply no quailty-control here: not for the characters, not for the stories, not for the drawing.
This debuted in 2006 but I wouldn't have known from its lousy artwork.
It is a mess that I simply gave up trying to decipher halfway through.
Fans will probably drag me through the mud for not being intelligent enough to appreciate the 'genius' of it.
Rmour has it that the real story will be unveiled by the end of the series, but I tried and couldn't make it till the end. But do let me share what I know:
A young boy moves into a new village, where he meets and befriends four girls. Then the violence begins.
Some people die, a few go missing, others get tortured, the rest become bewildered. And in the next story arc, the cycle repeats, only with a different kind of murder or a diiferent murderer. There are six story arcs that apparently have no relation to one another except the characters and the setting are the same.
Surprise, surprise, the ones committing these atrocities are none other than the four innocent-looking girls. Why? There is no good reason why! That is the most stupid thing about this anime.
Before long, the story writers have dropped all pretences and let viewers know straight out who the villain of that story arc will be. Oh look, innocent girl with yellow/black/brown hair is standing in the junkyard, a look of madness in her sweet eyes! I wonder, could she be the murderer this time round? But then, the other girls are just as loony, maybe this is a deception!
Reviewers who rave about this series - and gave me high hopes - all seem to agree that each story arc is a mystery for the viewer to ponder and decipher the reason behind the madness. As though each arc is a puzzle piece that leads to the final picture. Seriously, none of the arcs on its own ever made sense, except for two of the arcs that completed each other. Even then, it was like, suddenly one of the girls has an identical twin that messes with everybody's head. Like, duh, one of the lazy ways to wrap up the story - introduce a new secret character.
If you ever manage to finish this and understand what this madness is about, pray do tell.
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