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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions: Higurashi: When They Cry – New

A totally normal story set in a totally normal town… or is it?

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: TBA (at least 14)

Source: Visual Novel (re-make of 2006 TV anime)

Summary: Keiichi Maebara returns to his home in the tiny town of Hinamizawa following a family funeral. There he reconnects with Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Rika, four girls who form a very informal (but in their minds, extremely structured) after school activity club. Keiichi enjoys his afternoons with the girls, despite the fact that they often make him into the butt monkey of the group.

As he and Rena are walking home one evening, they stop at a garbage dump where Rena goes digging for “treasure.” While he’s waiting, Keiichi meets a photographer who implies that the town may be hiding a few unsettling secrets. However, when Keiichi asks Rena for more information about this, her demeanor changes abruptly and he drops the subject. Over the next couple of days, Keiichi learns a few details about the town’s fight to prevent some developers from building a dam which would have flooded the town upon its completion. Mion insists that there was no violence involved in the town’s eventual victory, but Keiichi’s chance discovery of an old magazine article tells a very different story. It also appears that his friends may have a vested interest in keeping this all a secret.