Please don't spend money on this.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

After looking at some reviews about the anime, I became excited to see this anime with all the praise it has gotten. But sadly, I quit watching around episode 6 and came to the conclusion that this anime wasn't as good as everyone made it out to be. Where do I start:Animation: Surprisingly, the animation was very...bland and sub-par to the other anime I have seen. The setting while well made were just dull to look at. Most of the environment weren't that great and fell flat most of what I had watched.Characters: There are times when I ask whether color theory is even a thing in Japan anymore, because this show has some of the worst color palettes I have ever seen. Colors were definitely never considered in this anime and could have actually made the show itself much more scary. Also, the fact that the character design are also stiff and feel restrained to the point that they too feel dull. Giving characters large cat eyes when they go insane did nothing for me. They weren't intimidating in the slightest and made me question how anyone could find the characters terrifying when their visible personality is never really shown.Also, just to get it out there, I hate moe stuff. Their actual designs and character makes me cringe and forces me to watch anime before the moe craze became a thing.Plot: The one thing that got under my skin the most weren't the characters, but the structure of the story. Literally the first second of the first episode starts with a gruesome scene, and then we get a boring backstory that lead up to the scene that takes several episodes to tell before we actually get back to it. The story being half moe slice of life and half psychological and suspenseful doesn't work when you reveal the gimmick to your anime this early. To be honest, I didn't care anyway about what happens since this anime loves to beat you over the head with its disgusting moe sh*t.Overall, the anime fails to interest me in its story with flat, boring characters and poor structure of storytelling. I do have to give credit to the soundtrack though, it was one of the few things I actually did like.

--Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, or When They Cry is a mystery anime with some cute characters, a few morbid scenes and several stories that are shown in sequence.--It revolves around the standard Japanese anime trick of not giving you enough information. The lack of information lets your imagination run wild, contemplating the reasons and motives of the events that take place, which can sometimes be a really good thing. When the story reveals one of those ideas to be right on the money, or when it's so inconceivable it sweeps you of your feet! However, this is not the case with When They Cry. The initial mystification caused by the apparently cute characters with dark secrets falls short when the characters' motives are reveled to be underdeveloped, oversimplified even. Grievous topics such as insanity and family abuse are touched, but shown with the depth of perspective you would get from reading about it in a news paper. Even when love is mentioned, it's used so trivially to motivate characters that all immersion is lost.--The animation aspect of the anime is also lacking. The colors of the characters will hurt your eyes due to distasteful and unappealing choices, while the backgrounds are pretty standard. The characters sometimes go into "spooky mode" which is overemphasized, like emotions in most anime. In this case however, the overreactions in "spooky mode" cross the line necessary to communicate the characters emotions to the viewer and wind up being outright grotesque.--The end of the anime is inconclusive and looks pretty much like a commercial for the video game from which this anime was adapted.--In short, When They Cry doesn't deserve it's misleading current score of 8,3 on a site like IMDb. This score is held by famous movies such as Rashomon, Snatch and Some Like it Hot. The more appropriate number, in my opinion is around 5, maybe even lower. Cheap thrills in a visually unstimulating package. Cheers!

I said good but this show is amazing...After watching the first episode most people will discard it as a kids show, personally, I wouldn't let my kids anyway near this show, although I like horror movies and shows it's really rare for me to feel horror myself, this show though, did it like no other.The story takes place in a small village, around a group of small kids (I wold guess the ages between 8 and 14, but that's all this is), although the village gives you a warm and soothing feeling, it will, by the end of each story, make you feel isolated and suffocating, the children are perky and sweet at the beginning (a little too much, some will say), are really dark and scary at the begging, The show divide to few stories, all around the same time of the year, it runs as a detective story from different angles, slowly gaining more details about the dark past of the village and it's people.You should watch the whole show, though, if you expect to understand any of it (even twice won't hurt, if you'll like it as much as I do), but only after seeing the sequel "Higurashi no naku koro ni kai" (which is not half as good, and can't really be called "horror") you'll really understand more then a few pieces.And I'll finish in a few words of warning, this is one of the best Japanese anime shows ever created, but it really ISN'T FOR THE FAINT OF HEARTS, enjoy

I LOVE this anime. It's my second favorite (After One Piece). The girls are all so cute(Especially Rena and Rika *Ni-pah!*). The story's original, and the characters all have wonderful personalities.However this anime does get very dark at times and may not be suitable for everyone as it DOES contain stuff like murder, child abuse, child torture, beatings, and the story keeps going back which may get on some peoples' nerves. However, aside from all this, it really is a great anime and in my opinion, is a true masterpiece in both story and horror. A must see for any horror fan.BEWARE THE KILLER LOLIS.