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new Higurashi episode was SO GOOD!!! Seal of approval. Had a smile on my face the whole time. They introduced the characters much better than the deen anime, re-adding scenes from the visual novel and accentuating the character acting does so much. A thread on why I love this ep:
Not gonna be the same as VN, big reason why I think the VN is a masterpiece is how its full use of 1st person exhausts you by polluting your mind with Keiichi& #39;s unreliable thoughts all the time. The show is missing the narration, but is looking to be something special on its own
A great thing anime can do is simulate narration without any actual words. Keiichi isn& #39;t "scared" yet, just uneasy and confused, thinking "huh? alright, odd bloke, but on to the next day." These scenes are perfect at conveying that. It& #39;s great buildup.
The directing in the deen anime is... They& #39;re not focusing on the things that matter. This scene in the new anime is half as long but twice as powerful. The lingering tracking out contrasts with the earlier expressiveness, and the "No" is more of a sudden punch like the VN.
The "No," isn& #39;t supposed to be lingered on, the old anime fucked up. Lingering on it makes us feel "ok we get it," rather than having us feel, "Uh what?" like Keiichi. We think the same thing Keiichi does as the camera tracks out. Great way to adapt the VN& #39;s narration naturally
Sorry but the turning around of Rena as she smiles evilly with a shadow over her is so damn cheesy. It& #39;s bad. Don& #39;t show us that. And can anyone tell me why the shot of Keiichi at 0:08 keeps tracking to the right??????? But here, every shot in the new anime& #39;s scene has a purpose.
Example, shot of the trash is POV of Keiichi looking down, trying to figure out if something happened there. The blocking is good with Rena looking to the left where Keiichi is in the next shot. He& #39;s still looking down (good transition from POV to reaction), then turns right so-
we expect Rena to continue this pattern, but she& #39;s shockingly close up. The quickness of this close-up & Keiichi& #39;s reaction contrasts with the next long shot, making it feel like a quick gut punch. Then they pretend like it didn& #39;t happen. Instead of "evil smile at the camera."
It& #39;s invisible and you& #39;re not supposed to notice how good this editing is, but it conveys the message a LOT better. Point is the old anime has pretty much none of this nuance which makes a huge difference. Compare the new scene& #39;s editing to the old scene& #39;s... nothing...?
Can we talk about how they& #39;re getting the creepy atmosphere in the beginning of Ch. 1 completely CORRECT, there& #39;re no "vine boom sound effects" anymore. The VN was all about the ambience, and the anime is adapting it perfectly. Keiichi isn& #39;t mindbroken (yet), he& #39;s just, "wh-?"
So much about that scene is better in the new anime. It shows us their personalities, Tomitake& #39;s nonchalant response to Keiichi& #39;s joke hits a lot more, without any vine boom sound effect. I& #39;m a sucker for good body language and it& #39;s why I think this new anime is going to work.
There& #39;re lots of smaller things to appreciate too. Example, when I saw this transition using the house to re-establish the scene I thought to myself... Huh, hold up, this might be some sauce. And from then on I was not let down for a single scene. This anime is in good hands.
New Higurashi anime is removing the narration from the VN, going all in on using body language and good editing to show it and also not feeling like a campy scare flick, I am ALL for it. Hope I& #39;ll be able to recommend this show at the end, cause I can& #39;t recommend the deen one rn
good shit to keiichiro kawaguchi who directed this apparently, I& #39;m so glad because my expectations were not high, I was anxious that this was gonna suck, but this blows me away and throws away all those thoughts. this hits
