mDuo13

For the next installment in my (perhaps poorly-named) End of Season Review Flood, I visit the OVA third season of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, titled Rei. Technically it's not a part of this season (having started some time ago) but being as the last episode finally came out around the same time, I'm gonna throw it in anyway. Oh, and as an aside, I just realized that I forgot to include "viewing considerations" sections in the previous reviews of this batch, so I've gone back to add those.

Higurashi Rei is best described as Studio Deen unabashedly cashing in on a popular franchise. Basically, after the first two seasons covered the entire story arc of the original games, and the original creator moved on to Umineko no Naku Koro ni (which is also being animated by Deen, by the way), somebody in upper management must have decided that there was still money to be made, so they hired someone to write another story arc and a couple filler episodes that follow the events of the original story, and threw together a 5-episode OVA to sell to otaku.

Plot & Characters: It's funny. The first arc of the first Higurashi season was one of the most well-written horror anime I've encountered, predominantly because it was actually scary. Unfortunately, the series lost its frightening quality after a while and by the end of the second season (which was already stretched from about 13 episodes worth of content into 26 episodes of animation) it felt kind of... dumb. Higurashi Rei accelerates that phenomenon fivefold, to the point where the first and fifth episodes are best described as ridiculous joke episodes, and the story arc in the middle is... well, it has its moments, but be forewarned that it's rather anticlimactic. The characters from the original series are all exaggerated somewhat from their former selves, and without the serious underpinnings of the story, their artificial quirks really start to show through. And, to top it all off, the show seems to only loosely continue from the previous seasons, including or excluding characters as is convenient rather than placing it at a definite point in any Higurashi timeline...

Art & Animation: Traditionally, OVAs are an opportunity for studios to showcase the best animation they can produce, given the much-relaxed schedule and the often larger budget per episode. But that's not what happens to Higurashi Rei. It looks pretty much identical to the original series; the only part of the series that seems the slightest bit unlikely to appear in a TV anime is the first episode plot, which revolves around disrobing Keiichi of his swimwear while he contemplates doing the same to the rest of the cast, and even that is portrayed with significantly more reserve than the violence of the first two series. Studio Deen has never been known for its great animation, but at least in some cases, like Maria-sama ga Miteru, it managed to step up the animation quality significantly for the OVA third series. I guess that's because Marimite had a legitimate 3rd season, compared to this joke.

Sound & Music: The first two series had spectacularly haunting opening themes by Eiko Shimamiya (formerly of I'VE Sound). This season attempts to continue it, "Superscription of Data" is not quite up to par with what was previously established. At least, unlike most aspects of this series, it's an admirable attempt. I won't be buying the single, like I did for Naraku no Hana but it's at least listenable. The ending theme, "Manazashi" by anNina is very similar to her Higurashi Kai ED, which makes it pretty decent overall and in-keeping with the franchise. The BGM is pretty much just rehash from the first two series, which means it's sparse, ambient electronic pianos, strings, and pads, where it's used at all. (The series has always relied heavily on atmospheric sound effects and silence as much as music.) Similarly, the generally very solid voice cast is back, but when pressed into acting such ridiculous dialogue, there's only so much they can do.

Humor: This series takes great leaps to try and be funny, but it goes to such ridiculous lengths to do so that it largely fails. One might say that it manages to bypass funny and go all the way to terrible, but then keeps going back until it's so bad that it's good again. I respected one or two of the jokes (see the screenshot I provided) but overall, most of their gags are pretty low forms of humor. They even tried working mahjong into the last episode, but by comparison to actual mahjong anime Saki (which I'll be reviewing shortly), it hardly measures up.

Viewing Considerations: Honestly, you should only even consider watching this series if you lasted through the previous two seasons of Higurashi, and if that's the case, there's nothing here that should bother you, except maybe the general lack of quality. There's no fingernail-pulling, no gruesome on-screen stabbing, and about the same level of loli fanservice.

Overall: I watched this series because it was short and because I have a thing about wanting to completely watch things. If you have a similar fixation, you may find the show tolerable. Certainly it's less time, less frustrating, and less idiotic than previously-reviewed Shangri-La, but by no means does that make it good. You may enjoy the central arc, or you may get a kick out of the absurdist first and fifth episodes, but this is a series I expect to make very few favorites lists, and rightfully so.