English Dub Review: Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou “Demon-Deceiving Chapter, Part 1”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Keiichi Maebara returns from a funeral out of town and enjoys a fun day at school in the rural town of Hinamizawa with his friends, Rena, Mion, Satako, and Rika. But when he starts talking to local photographer Tomitake, he starts learning about murder that occurred years ago when a man connected to a dam project (which would have flooded the town if completed) was killed, and wonders if his friends have been keeping things about it from him. Rika definitely seems up to something with her red glowing eyes.

OUR TAKE
Welcome to the shameless reboot of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni! Yessir, I guess nothing really is sacred or impervious to being remade in the modern day, nothing original anymore, blah blah blah. Only, as many following this show have heard by now, this not actually a remake, but a stealth sequel to the 2006 series and its 2008 sequel. I might be getting ahead of myself on that since it isn’t really revealed until next episode, but it’s pretty common knowledge by now. Higurashi was quite popular when it came out, being based on equally popular visual novels about murder mysteries and time resets. I watched both seasons around the time they came out, though the second season has surprisingly never gotten a dub, probably partially due to the company that dubbed the first season, Geneon, going under while releasing the first. We have a completely new cast for this dub, which makes me wonder if they’ll go back and dub Season 2, AKA Higurashi Kai, with those actors, though I feel like this cast is going to run into the same problems the first one did in trying to make all the overly cute anime noises sound natural in English.

As for its nature as a stealth sequel, this episode is still solidly on the stealth part, trying to follow the first episode of the first season just about to the letter and even throwing in the first season’s opening theme for its ending. We’ll be seeing some new songs for this season’s OP and ED, though they definitely pale in comparison to the sheer unnerving nature of the originals. But yeah, this is presenting the show as a straight up remake all the way up until that last shot of Rika with her glowing eyes, which is certainly a new addition. Keiichi, meanwhile, is still only just learning about the dark secrets of his home town, which will likely end in tragedy based on that cold open of him bashing in someone’s brains with a bat. Although what might be a hint at things to come is that he seems to get a premonition about this, which is something that only happened in the second season once everyone had been through the time loop at least a few times. But I’ll get more into that when the sequel is no longer stealth (and an undubbed character is finally dubbed!) next week.