Higurashi - When I cry >.>

Before I start review, I'd advertise my link again smaller now, cause I'm lazy to find you guys more pics. Also I have been barely logging Allods and playing S4 League and Kart Rider ( Chinese version, though I get owned bad) in my spare time. Nice short update, so now to topic at hand: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Usually I don't review animes, but this one got such high ratings no matter which anime site I went to and I have some pretty strong opinions about this.

So their are 2 seasons and 1 OVA, that I will shorten to Higurashi, Higurashi Kai, and Higurashi Rei.

Some background about how this anime "works". What you get is arcs, each tell the same story with some variation to it. The first season is the question arcs, while the second season is the answer arcs.

Next section is spoilers, if you don't want to be spoiled don't click
Now on it's own, this anime shows a total of 6 arcs.Of the 6 of these 2 of them are answer arcs. Now I don't have a major issue of how the first couple arcs are done, I mean I hate how it has to re-establish the setting every time (gets boring) but that is far from a being considered a huge fault. This season flows pretty smoothly as you don't get much inforation yet to find plot holes. For most part it is watchable, nothing amazing ( just a bit graphic and gory at times)

Higurashi Kai
Now here is where all the issues come out. First thing we see is we meet grown up Rena. Now the problem is, they make it seem like Miyo's Journal was about Aliens and such, which conflicts with the MAJOR catalyst of the why Rika dies. I mean if it was about aliens and zero acknowledgement, doesn't that mean Miyo failed? Why is she magically out of the picture in this arc? Even if she was actually murdered off scene, the idea that her journals were portrayed as "occult novel books" ( in the last season end) shows it looks NOTHING like writing of a university graduate. If anything it should be filled with theories, equations, observations and procedures. Hard to mistake that for just Occult novel books. Even IF they pass it off as Miyo not being the villian, how is Rena still alive? She was infected with everyone researching the disease dead. Why is Rena still around?

The 1st arc had no major flaws, jsut another retale of what would happen. Now the 2nd arc is where the "magic" happens, we meet Hanyu for the first time. Now this is the quickiest, most rushed way to "fix" everyones problems. I mean Keiichi's insanity was never brought to light what triggered it so he's magically "Fixed". Mion was saved by a doll, and Rena was saved by a 5 min chat. Now these could barely be passed off even though it is pretty bad, but why Shion? Last season it was portrayed how much she despised her family for killing Satoshi. Just probably seeing Keiichi would have sprouted thoughts of him, the doll probably wouldn't have mattered. How Shion was magically lost her lust for vengeance is beyond me and never even touched on.
Now this arc furthers pushes forth for a while with Sotoko's problem for a couple eps. The resolution to this is still a bit sketchy why Sonozaki family even agreed in first place and not stepped in at the start. After this we get our reveal on who the enemy is and we get to see her background a bit. Your understandable EMO "I hate you world" story.

Now skip forth to final arc. They literally skip ahead like everyone's insanity was never even an issue. Everyone was fine to begin with ( so what was point of the WHOLE FIRST SEASON if it was so easily fixed?) and even Sonozaki family magically agrees without the slightest disagreement. At this point if you look back, almost EVERY character made 180 personalities in a span of a couple arcs. Rika is portrayed to have been around for a thousand years. At a month at a time, that is ALOT of times she had to try. Why was these first question arcs THAT hard to figure out when it could be solved in 5 mins?

Now we get to the climax with the Rika gang facing off against Miyo gang. Now first grueling issue is when they hole themselves up in the estate. THAT WAS THE WORST EXCUSE I EVER SEEN of how they make it out. I must ask, WHERE DID ALL THE GUNS GO? Magically none of them are armed, but when they raided, they were armed with guns and explosives. Also, how did Akasaka beat up like 4 guys? It is portrayed in first season that he couldn't even beat 1. HOW DID HE POWER UP SO MUCH!?!?!?
Are these soldiers suddenly so crap they get owned by everything? What happened to being elite?

Only issue left is the sappy ending. It is portrayed Rika goes back and saves Miyo from her fate by having her parents survive. This seemed like the MOST FORCED ATTEMPT EVER TO MAKE EVERYTHING HAPPY. With that kind of power, she could prevent all wars and such. Why is she bothering with something so insignificant in comparison?
In the end, if you changed the char names and looks, I would easily believe the 2 season aren't even related. I mean 1 is Mystery and Horror while the other season is more about friendship and sappy endings. All the characters change so significantly it is like they are different people. The plot is full of holes, and it lacks fluidity. This has got to be the most overhyped anime I ever seen. It fails in the most important aspect of mystery stories, the plot. A plot holed mystery story is like watching paint dry. Combine that with the arcs needing to re-introduce the setting multiple times makes it even more boring. I was pausing this anime many times due to it being to slow.
7/10 first season, 3/10 second season.

I wouldn't recommend this atrocity to anyone. (took me a whole 10 mins to get that spoiler button working D:)