Review: Higurashi no naku koro ni

Lemme tell you something about Higurashi no naku koro ni.....

A few years back before I was into doctor who and was mostly a gamer and otaku A friend of mine Started watching higurashi All I had heard or seen was damn near traumatizingly gorey and violent so I wasn't Running into the series with my head held high.I'm a bit of a sissy when it comes to gore though oddly enough I love alot of horror movies.....I digress.

Evantually maybe a month later I decided to give it a shot and I could not stop watching trying to figure out what was going on. It had me from the start but maybe I should take a more scientific look to this

For those who don't know higurashi no naku koro ni is a japanese anime series that came out of a game series of the same name.It has the same cast of characters every arc but at the end of each arc usually all or most of the main cast ends up dead only to start up the next arc like nothing happened.When the afore mentioned friend told me that all of the things that happened in each arc did happen by which I mean all of the stories at the end are canon and did happen but not at the same time.Sort of.....It's confusing to think of but trust me when I heard this I tore through the series in a fit of classic mystery glee.However much like old time mystery novels it's graphic......really graphic like nightmare fuel for months graphic and I was 21 when I started watching it.It's like a mystery crossed with an old school and awesome horror movie It's the how and when that make it so fascinating

• Plot-The plot to higurashi Looking back is fairly twisted and swirled in terms of how things end up at the end.mostly surrounding the identity of the main villain Who I will Identify as Oyashiro Since that what I called it in the top 10 villains.But I really think that while following the full plot to higurashi through to the second season higurashi kai is an impressive and unique story I really think the beauty lies in the first season's short story-esque arcs.The first season only known as higurashi no naku koro ni or when they cry in english And in 26 episodes there are six mini stories with clues to the big payoff in kira but you could easily take the first season alone as a series of short stories and really either way you are in a good position to get the most out of the series.While stories have been done better I still stand by the main story of the first two seasons......I'll get to the other two later.
• Animation- the animation is bright colorful and yet still very sinister when done right.It gives off a nice sense of small town imagery and sights and also the feeling of the summer.Living in a small town I definatly see the similarities.the second season Improves it a little but while the first season can be crude here and there it never becomes anything terrible so I do enjoy it all in all.
• Characters For the most part are enjoyable and fun to watch but also deep and when they want to be disturbing as all hell. A fun fact,Rena ryuugu When I first started watching the series her voice annoyed the hell out of me and I said to the earlier mentioned friend I quote" I think I hate her".......hindsight is a bitch cause she is in fact my favorite character in the series.Both her voice actors english and japanese are good once you've gotten used to them.She's just something to see how possibly the most adorable character turns into this....

That's episode four......you see why this is a fascinating show how in hell's name did this happen?!?!?!

The sonozaki sisters are interesting to think about when you see the second and fifth arc.the both of them are very interesting to watch just to see both the similarities and differences between them.I think both have the same voice actor and they're both pretty good as well

Rika furude is my second favorite for a reason she just has the most fascinating storyline when you know what's going on in kai.She's interesting to get into the head of and while i can't say why she's a cool character because of that twist with her character.her japanese voice actor is quite good but her english one is....okay.

The houjou siblings.While both of them do have good stories and personalities i just never got into either satoko or the plot point man satoshi.Both VA's are okay in both again not my thing.

Keiichi maebara.....In the first arc he's pretty good but past that I never really had any reason to like him past that and again VA's are okay.

The minor characters again good but nothing great sans a few really nice characters.

• Sound- The sounds provide the most atomosphere from the show and can really change the way you feel in a scene.Without the chirping it's not as creepy by a long shot but with it it just gives this uneasyness to the more unsettling parts of the series.As for the main opening to the first two series,The first is a great eerie way to get into the mindset of the series and kai's is an excellent way to feel the emotional sense of the series. as for rei and kira well.....

Rei is okay in every aspect the story is okay,the plot okay,the main theme okay,the animation is slightly worse then kai but okayeverything is okay.It has a few good laughs even though it has some really obvious fan service moments.and then there is kira.......WHAT WENT WRONG HERE!?!?!?!

Kira has the most annoying opening ever,the animation is slightly better then rei but the first episode was just offensive.They took a clever and kinda cute idea for a plot and turned it into something so fanservice filled and gets damn near pornographic at points with it.I can't speak for the other parts of kira that are not out as of yet but with that opening It would be hard to take it seriously so I'm not holding my breath.

All in all watch the first two season though only the first is in english.....I don't know why since you need kai for the rest of the plot But either in english or japanese it's pretty good I give it my blessing just avoid rei and especially kira like the plague.....

So hear me out on this.

So I mentioned this a little bit earlier but I think I have new proof of my theory.For those who did not see it or have no clue what I'm talking about I have a theory that the source of the silence Now that I've seen let's kill hitler either the monster or the group though I think the monster was saying it's allegiance not species but anyway was created by The kaled scientist Davros and he's the one behind both it and the destruction of the tardis in series 5.My first thought was when you see the crack appear in the tardis screen and hear "Silence will fall" To me It sounds like a davros voice to me like either the genesis of the daleks davros or the stolen planet I've yet to hear the others.Also and here's my new proof during the trailers for the new season half on the canadian sci fi channel space you could see what looks like a bright blue eye opening and to me it looks identical to davros' eye.

Why though would he and how did he survive the explosion in the series 4 finale? Well While I don't know how he survived It's possible because the invasion being erased from time or the master being thrown into the time war that messed things up.....I don't know You make something better up! anyway think about it when we last saw him he was imprisoned by the daleks because he wasn't a dalek.I think after he somehow got out of it,again not my job to figure out how just following clues,He figured I can't control the daleks so I'll make something that can control them and everything else IE the alliance from the pandorica opens.Which also explains why the main objective of the silence seems to be complete anti existance.maybe I'm off but it makes sense to me

The top ten villains finale

When I Started this series It was because of one reason.My Immense love of the villains of so many series.I adore villains.I love alot of heroes I mean I don't think I need to say my favorite hero is the doctor and megaman zero is a close second.But there is just something so much more fascinating about villains.Why they became evil or why they want to destroy and/or conquer? Why they hate the main hero or why they created an army?Why humanity hates them or why they hate humanity? It's the questions about these beings that really speak leagues about humanity itself.
I Recently had a conversation with a friend of mine comparing why Hitler did what he did and why he hated anyone different then what he thought was perfect.Oddly enough though my thoughts went to the top two on this list actually.The master actually was an eerie comparison to Hitler wanting control and doing anything to achieve it and while I doubt Hitler danced to "I can't decide" By the scissor sisters it's still a spooky comparison.

Then why is it myself and others love the master or scarecrow or the silence? I think it's because somewhere in the human mind people want to learn about the evils they can create to better themselves but then again I'm not a psyche major so maybe this is just me talking out my ass.But while I am enjoying this little rant I should get on with the show.But first I have two things to mention.First of all I want to re-clarify what things make a good villain to me and through this I realize there is five not three like I said earlier.

First the ability to defeat the heroic counterpart.Any villains that can defeat the best hope earth has even only to be defeated again is impressive.I think the two best at doing this list were Dr Weil and the master.they turned the two heroes I find the most heroic and incredible into mice scurrying for their lives and my god does that say something

Second is the ability to outsmart the hero.I know this is insanely similar to the first but It does count to me even if they don't really beat them.the master and kuja had the heroes spinning around trying to figure out what in gods name the villain was planning while they were getting ahead the whole time.

Third is intimidation.the ability to create fear among the populace and create havoc making it just that much harder for the hero to accomplish their job.The scarecrow is one of the best examples of this literally having his ability be creating fear and havoc among the populace.

The fourth is put simply iconic imagery.How they stand out against other similar villains and how their face stays with the public eye.The cybermen were the first one to really have this work for them and number one has this going in spades as well.

Last is style.What I consider to be a certain kind of villain.It's hard to explain what I think of as style but think of it this way.It's why scarecrow is so high on the list and why kuja instead of kefka is on the list.It's basically what makes this MY list not someone else's

The second thing I wanna mention is the list of some villains that didn't quite make the list.



•Beatrice from umineko.A great villain but the series makes it kind of hard to fully get what's going on with her.plus she seems off from my style.
 •Carnage from spider man. A savage lunatic.the ultimate insanity indeed but really that's all he is but in fairness he does it well
 •The Sontarans from doctor who. While very iconic and powerful they....look like Mr potato head gone wrong and then some.
 •The Silurians from doctor who.Also great but not really evil just rebellious.
 •kefka from final fantasy 6.A great villian but the best example of style.he just doesn't click with me personally.
 •Gangers from doctor who.Again an incredible character but another case of not really evil



....And ladies and gentlemen we are at the big moment.When the master woke up from being resurrected he saw one thing taking the time lord cruciform....uh click the read more thing cause this post will be huge

The top 10 Villains #2 The Master

Oh god.These next two were the one's that were going back and forth all the time.I mean when I wrote number five I had just settled it these two are close.But enough of my indecisiveness and my god let me tell you about the master.

Psychotic,Insane,violent,and unpredictable.......And I'd still vote for him over bush

Originally known as koschei the master was actually the doctor's best friend when they were children,but when the time lord right of passage to stare into the untempered schism(A tear in the fabric of time) while some would become stronger he went insane.A drum beat was implanted inside of his head by time lord rassilon in the far future to escape a time lock but at the time the only thing it truly caused was koschei's insanity.

When the doctor ran off koschei was told to go after him with a spy following the master to make sure he did his job but due to his fixation with a powerful device called the dark heart device and the Revelation he was being spied on the last good in him died and he fully became the master.

He and the doctor would fight back and forth through multiple regenerations but my favorite two of the master are roger Delgado and john simm.For roger Delgado All I need to show is his photo

Look at that he pretty much coined the term devil beard I love it

However the form I have the most appreciation for is john simm.After the previous form of the master locked himself in the tardis and regenerated the 6th master traveled back to modern day Britain and used the name Harold Saxon and his intellect to become minister of defence and eventually prime minister of great Britain.That alone is really impressive when you think about it. But in control of the tardis he managed to convince a woman soon to be his wife to help him and using the tardis as a paradox machine similar to the dark heart machine (as far as I can tell anyway) he managed to convert the human race at the end of the universe into small metal flying balls with spikes and lazers.Which leads to one of the most awesome moments in sci fi history

HE CRACKS OPEN THE SKY TO SEND MILLIONS OF TOCLAFANE TO EARTH EXTINCTING 10% OF THE POPULATION!!!

Holy S**t this is just incredible.I mean the actual act is impressive but the image it leaves in your mind is just unreal.And it's not over yet at the end of the episode he has the doctor aged 100 years and incapacitated and the entire world is under his control he says one of the best evil speeches I've ever heard

"So it came to pass, that the human race fell... and the Earth was no more. And I looked down upon my new dominion, as Master of all, and I thought it... good"

That alone the massive defeat of the doctor the way how he used his own enemies vehicle and home to a massive disadvantage and even destroyed the human race with the human race.that really says it all of why He's one of the greatest villains of all time.Why is he number two then? Well I'm not a huge fan of the end of time version not that a psychotic cannaballistic lighting shooting super hobo version of the master isn't unbeliavably awesome but the fact that he kind of saved the world albeit inadvertendly but still plus there is something that scared him when the time lords revived the master for the time war for when he saw what they were fighting against he ran and suffice it to say number one is what He ran from.



The top 10 villains #3 Scarecrow

When I first started this I only really knew of 3 characters that would be on the list.The top three are more or less the reason I started this and scarecrow is definitely one of my favorite villains of all time and my god does he deserve more panel time.

Johnathan crane was a professor of psychology and usually this is where I say but something bad happens to him but scarecrow is a different story.He became obsessed with the study of fear and eventually started doing experiments on normal humans with a fear toxin.He got fired and started doing it freelance or as most people call it psychological torture or a crime.The mask whether the Cillian Murphy version from batman begins or the more scarecrow looking one is usually because he uses it as intimidation and as an amplified effect for his fear toxin

Why is he above guys like the silence or Alexia? Put simply his way of thinking is something for villains.In his mind He's not doing good or evil just his simple experiments which have taken his life over.The simplicity of that and yet just how much fear and pain he can cause is amazing and just how he looks and acts can be incredible to watch. My favorite version of which is probably the arkham asylum version.

I mean look at this guy he has hypodermic needles as fingers.....Jeez@.@

I could describe what I think of each of the versions of him but I'll describe all of them in one.....Awesome but my god what a way to make him look like a wuss at the end there.I mean think about it how did batman begins end for him? How did Arkham end for him.....BADLY!!

This is why he's here but he deserves to be higher I just can't put him above the next two with those endings to him in the larger stories.Plus I haven't seen scarecorw episodes of the animated series in a while so I can't say anything there.I do love this guy though so I'm really hoping if he's in arkham city He'll end off better but I don't think he is(Which I hate since the freakouts were awesome in asylum)



The top 10 villains #4 The silence

My favorite series of doctor who in total is series 5 the first season of matt smith's run,and one of the main things that haunted you throughout it was one line that continued but was never answered.The single best example was when river in the tardis trying to figure out why it wasn't responding and an eerie crack appears in the monitor and one of the most sinister voices I've heard says one line.....

This Line just about drove every doctor who theorist insane as to what the silence meant.I still follow a theory involving the voice that After being treated as a prisoner davros created a new race to control the daleks but I'm getting ahead of myself.But in the two parter opening of series 6 the impossible astronaut and day of the moon we were given an answer.

Well it aint davros Unless he learned to walk and got uglier.....somehow

First of all the setup in brilliant and alone it deserves a spot for that.....were this a setup list.I wasn't sold at first but as things continued I started to love these guys just by the appearance.The formality of the suit and how simple and normal it looks offput by the seriously messed up face and hands of these creatures.Steve moffat said a bit of the appearance was inspired by the painting "The scream" and you can easily see it.But that was where these things started getting really cool.The concept for them is the reason they're here.Once you see them and look away you forget you ever saw them.

Oh also they shoot lightning but that's a bonus.

There is more though.They can also give subliminal messages when someone sees them because the act of memory erasure when looking away leaves a residual effect and allows them to effectively control every human on earth and think about this.As far as we know these creatures have been on earth until 1969 and for ages before so think about that.The doctor traveled before that and never once cought on to them because of their powers they may have literally influenced things in the doctor's past.I know the dalek invasion was erased from time but as far as we know that was all and I have a theory there too but that's for another time.

The silence aren't done yet in this season of doctor who starting back next week (With let's kill hitler.....I freaking love this show) so I'll give a little edit and possibly move the number of the silence after that but they had to deserve a spot just for existing and that says alot about the silence

 

EDIT: And after the wedding of river song I can do a full review on them......not that much really changed.While the actual name of the creatures is debatable being they're just members of the religious order called the silence. While I admit they were pretty sadistic to rory but really not much changed.Though they did do a nice fourth wall breakage calling rory the man who dies and dies again.

 

I am tempted to do a bit on kovarian the apparent leader of the silence but I really don't know that much other then she is one sadistic woman and with work she could become as big as the master or the daleks but not for a few seasons anyway.

 

Maybe in a few years I'll do a redo of the list to update it but for now the silence stays at number 4

Top ten villains #5 Alexia Ashford/Veronica

This woman......she is by far one of the most sadistic women in gaming history.This woman is one of the most unsettling and disturbing minds in gaming history.This woman is in my opinion the single most devious and sinister minds in fiction.This is my response to fans of the series monster who say johan is the greatest villain of all time.While I do believe he is a great villain he's not my style so don't expect him here but trust me he'd be lower on the list then alexia ashford.

Also looks better in a dress then johan but I'm getting off topic

Actually she has alot of similar traits to johan.Both these two have a twin that involves alot of the story.While johan became the psychopathic cross dressing lunatic compared to his sister anna the more peaceful of the two.I actually kinda like to think alexia and alfred are what would happen if the lieberts roles were reversed.With instead of the sister becoming the kind and loving sister anna was she became a genius and considerably more sinister while instead of the brother becoming the genius became a mere follower and evantually would try to become her in face value.Kinda fascinating but that's not the issue here.

Her "father" alexander ashford in an atempt to bring the families name out of the abyss from which it was sent created an intelligence gene and using his ancestor veronica ashford's dna created twins intended to be one person.the above average alfred and the genius alexia.Her intelligence caused her to be alienated by everyone except her brother.On her twelvth birthday two years after she graduated college,her brother and her snuck into a secret room and discovered how they were born and began to hate their father.A moth later the 12 year old genetically engineered her father into this....

I'm completly speechless here that says it all.

She would go on to perfect the virus that turned her father into.....that,she perfected it seeing his mutations and would later use it on herself leaving herself in cryostasis for years allowing the virus time to take shape inside of her.She would later get woken up later then she said.She would kill her brother for this and only this reason.THAT is why she is this high on the list.She had no problem killing her only actual friend because of something so trivial.but the other moment of why she's here is because she not only outsmarted the main protagonists and would mutate a main hero which would lead to his death but later she would cause albert wesker the series main villain....to flee.holy crap.

I love this villain she's my second favorite of all time but why then is she at 5? Well after all of that she was really nothing more then another genius on the resident evil chopping block like birkin or....that guy from zero.....the leech guy.....unmemorable dude.marcus I had to look that up too.Anyway that's her main downfall if she comes back somehow then she may be number one just for the persistance but I doubt it now.