Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira: Episodes 1-4 (Complete)
Yes, yes, yes! That OP was probably the best possible medicine to treat my post-Umineko depression. Higurashi might be shoving its way into 3rd place behind only Slayers and Bubblegum Crisis as the franchise with the most consistently great soundtrack at this rate. Kira was produced as a kind of celebration of 10 years of the franchise, as such it's fanservicey as all hell and is not to be taken seriously, at all. But it is also an OVA series which means considerably higher production values plus we're into the HD era now; rarely has something so dumb and ridiculous looked so beautiful. This extra budget even appears to have allowed the animators to (finally) figure out how boobs work.
The first two episodes are pure ridiculousness (of the ecchi and parody varieties respectively) and ymmv on how entertaining you find them depending on your tolerance for those genres. I enjoyed them, though occasionally through my fingers when I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. Certainly anyone disinclined towards what are some
fairly suggestive scenes featuring characters who are supposed to be eleven years old is probably better off skipping Episode 1. Kira isn't getting a UK release any time soon I'd wager, but if it ever does pass the BBFC I think we can consider the arguments over what exactly the Coroners and Justice Bill 2009 covers settled in favour of the rights of 2D lolis to self-expression.
The third episode is much closer to the usual flavour of Higurashi hijinks and more resembles something you might expect from a regular episode. Its love-quadrangle schemes are still pretty silly, but in-universe believable levels of silliness rather than off the charts. But the fourth is actually just a lovely story, making real use of that OVA budget to show off the beauty of Hinamizawa in what's almost a slice of life episode with a sweet ending that would make such a good canon finale I'm almost afraid to watch Gō and Sotsu now. No wait, that's good. Fear is good, Higurashi should make me afraid.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku: Covid Outbreak
What an oddity this one is. An hour long (and much more serious in tone) OVA released a year after Kira, yet it's far less visually impressive and has only ever been released on DVD (no blu-ray, no digital HD version) in Japan. From the way the characters rehash plot points near the start it feels like this was intended to be accessible to viewers new to the franchise, which might have made sense if it was a cinematic release but as far as I can discern, it wasn't. Perhaps it was originally planned as such but the idea was scrapped part way through production and the budget was cut as a result. That would certainly make a lot of sense, I can't imagine anyone who wasn't already a fan of Higurashi buying this as an OVA and those fans wouldn't need previous plot elements summarising for them. It also has long scrolling end credits just like a film.
Outbreak is clearly meant to take place on a completely separate timeline and it is very different in feel. Not only has the humour been stripped away but the characters themselves seem like harsher people, Rika barely reacts to Satoko's distress and Rena of all people starts talking about survival of the fittest and natural selection as it pertains to people
after her and Keiichi have butchered dozens of people seemingly without a care in the world. It was clearly intended as the start of an alternative story, but I can't say I'm surprised it never went any further given that almost everything recognisably Higurashi is absent. There's no mystery, everything that's happening is spelled out, the horror has been replaced with gung-ho action and besides their appearances and voices the characters hardly seem like the same people. "Higurashi does zombie apocolypse" was
done before, and better.
