I'm not gonna lie I anticipated this anime for a long time. Higurashi Sotsu is basically the sequel to Higurashi Gou. Of course since it's considered an "answer arc" season, we get to see who was the secondary culprit of each arc, and how they came to be and the way each murder was made is explained (because the primary antagonist was revealed towards the end of Gou). There are some unpredictable stuff hapening in some episodes and the penultimate episode does feature something new for Higurashi standards which will attract your attention. Though, My first problem with this season, is that while the answer arcs of the original series explore different worlds and give off clues as to what happened in each situation of the question arcs, in Sotsu we get all the explanations about what happened in the same worlds' the question arcs of Gou took place. As a result we have a lot of re-used footage and lots of recap that kind of bugged me to be honest. There were some scenes that took me by surprise but one of the mains reasons I watched this season, was to finally see how it ended. I expected this moment since episode 18(??) of Gou where there is a cliffhanger and basically shows why and how the events of Gou happened. And of course the cliffhanger is resolved badly by the writers. But the biggest elephant in the room is the ending which honestly felt rushed and forced. I believe they should have made Sotsu as a 24-26 episode series as well, to give extra backstory on some characters and perhaps make a better build-up a different ending. As with Gou, the references to 07th expansion's other works such as Umineko and Ciconia are good fan service but don't expect from Ryukishi to explicitly connect each series with each other. It's true that Ryukishi is making a these references as a marketing gimmick but on one interview, he said, he makes some of those characters look similar because he imagines his characters as actors taking different roles, such as Rika looking Similar to Erika Furudo and Bernkastel. It's a very meta thing that ties your brain in a knot, because you don't understand who is the "real" person and who is the character. So yeah all in all, if they had made a better ending, animated from scratch the re-cap scenes (at least) , utilized some of the characters better (Satoko never meets with Satoshi and Shion has very little screen time) I'd rate it higher and it would be a less disappointing experience. So yeah I prefer Gou, because of the way it engages the watcher to the mystery, and the motives of the culprit. It's slightly inferior to the two first seasons of the original series by Deen but I believe it can still be re-watched. Sotsu on the other hand.... Not so much because you basically watch the same things again from a different angle. Now I want to wait to see how the Higurashi Jun manga finishes the story because it will have a different ending than the one of Sotsu.
9 Reviews
The Never-Ending Nightmare Returns
robinsonaustin-0749017 September 2021
For the most part, I can say that this is better than Gou, but it is still with its issues. The first being that since we now know the killer, their motives, and the twists, it almost feels like a chore to rewatch the same arcs, albeit with slight alterations to recontextualize them. It doesn't help matters where one arc I had in mind would have still ended up in the same results.
The animation is still good, but it kind of feels like a waste to see them being reused for the sole purpose of adding context to them. If anything, I saw a lot of the scenes coming after seeing the events of Gou play out with a few genuine surprises that caught me off guard. But I do like the visuals of the opening theme and the ending theme which again resembles a watercolor painting of Rika and Satoko just living their best lives together.
Once more, the characters were placed to the wayside since the show is really more about the conflict between Rika and Satoko. And even then, I'm just getting bored with that as the driving theme.
I did like the OP and ED themes, though.
The animation is still good, but it kind of feels like a waste to see them being reused for the sole purpose of adding context to them. If anything, I saw a lot of the scenes coming after seeing the events of Gou play out with a few genuine surprises that caught me off guard. But I do like the visuals of the opening theme and the ending theme which again resembles a watercolor painting of Rika and Satoko just living their best lives together.
Once more, the characters were placed to the wayside since the show is really more about the conflict between Rika and Satoko. And even then, I'm just getting bored with that as the driving theme.
I did like the OP and ED themes, though.
A good sequel to GOU
Movi3DO4 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Imagine hating math so much that you will burn the multiverse. And now we have Sasuke Shippuden, where Naruto is the evil one.
Someone please gives Satoko the damn Oscar. The majority of SOTSU was explaining how GOU happened. Because of this, the scenes in SOTSU overlapped a lot with GOU, but this time audiences saw the horror and devilish plans from Satoko. Some episodes were not too interesting, but others gave me chills due to the sick minds of Satoko. She really went distance to accomplish her goals.
As for the gores, a big part was just repeat from previous season. However, the others were pretty bloody and violent as I wanted.
My major problem with the show was the ending. It was such a weird tonal shift from the whole show. The show was dark and violent, but the ending felt like a final shounen anime battle. It felt a bit similar to Naruto Shippuden.
Overall, a good sequel to the surprising GOU. This seems like a closure of the show, but I have a feeling that it might continue. 7/10.
Someone please gives Satoko the damn Oscar. The majority of SOTSU was explaining how GOU happened. Because of this, the scenes in SOTSU overlapped a lot with GOU, but this time audiences saw the horror and devilish plans from Satoko. Some episodes were not too interesting, but others gave me chills due to the sick minds of Satoko. She really went distance to accomplish her goals.
As for the gores, a big part was just repeat from previous season. However, the others were pretty bloody and violent as I wanted.
My major problem with the show was the ending. It was such a weird tonal shift from the whole show. The show was dark and violent, but the ending felt like a final shounen anime battle. It felt a bit similar to Naruto Shippuden.
Overall, a good sequel to the surprising GOU. This seems like a closure of the show, but I have a feeling that it might continue. 7/10.
How to watch the Higurashi series:
aeuroneil4 July 2021
Amazing Start!
cosmiccat121 July 2021
The title met the expectations so far, with more revelations in the answer arcs represented by the first two episodes, I see a really good potential for Sotsu to become better than Gou, unless they shift from the main plot of the story. Would like to see what unfolds after the answer arcs between Satoko and Rika! Op is really good as well. The fresh start after a small break proved better than Gou visually!
The horrifying cycle continues...
TheGreatGreenBadger16 July 2021
Connected with Umineko
yugom-5131224 September 2021
Amazing. The fact that its the first original arc (as in not being in the game) makes it exciting for those who have played it. Even more, it strengthens the connection with When They Cry Umineko, which is a game made by the same creator of Higurashi. So far so good, keeping the gory and despair, the trademarks of the Higurashi series, as well as dropping hints for theories to come. Anyhow, great anime.
I don't get... Why such a low rating
GibbsDuhemEquation5 January 2022
This show is amazing, I've been hearing since a while now till I watched, I took so long to watch because of IMDb they gave it such a low rating so I thought it boring as they suggested but boy... Was I wrong, this show deserves an 8.5 or above but I totally understand why it has such a low rating, the show is a mess and unsettling and that's exactly why I like it, gou was confusing but everything makes sense in the answer arc, and this probably the most unique shows I've watched this year, but I guess when something tries too hard to be unique many people don't understand and simply give it a low rating, the writer totally knows what he's doing at first I thought it was just gonna feel like milking up the og Kai but nope I was wrong, this was completely different, there are no jump scares it's straight up scary it's not like all those awful corny horror movies we're tired it's completely different, such an underrated show imho, what's more things don't just happen out of the bloom like how most horror shows are portraid almost anything has an explanation, we even get an episode where we get a little bit of Heisenberg principle of uncertainty but that part subtle they don't exactly eplain it, which is a good thing.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
