When They Cry/Higurashi the ideal Horror Anime

Strictly speaking I'm not a Horror fan.  I've never been truly scared by any fiction I've consumed, nor have I ever sought that reaction.  So the presumed main appeal of Horror stories does not apply to me.

But I have enjoyed many stories in the Horror genre for other reasons.  I'm interested in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy elements they sometimes use, which overlaps with my interest in mythology and folklore, both real and fictional.  I enjoy mysteries and thrillers and Hitchcock style suspense.  And I can enjoy psychological horror because I like character pieces, I like exploring and developing interesting characters, and something like telling a story from the POV of someone slowly going insane from Paranoia can be an interesting way to do that.

But my lack of interest in most modern Horror tends to come from a deteriorating appreciation for the idea that "less is more".  I get tired of endless Jump Scares and gratuitous blood and gore.

I'm also someone who has spent the last few years increasingly turning almost exclusively to Anime for my entertainment media.  I haven't watched much Horror anime yet, a few that have horror elements but are still not chiefly about being horror, like Future Diary.  And yes even the Zombie anime I talked about last year was not really a horror story.

But this last week I decided to check out Higurashi no Naku Korro ni (sometimes just shortened to Higurashi) rendered in English as both When They Cry and The Moment the Cicades Cry.  This Anime has much of why I'm interested in Horror stories, and none of what commonly bugs me about them.  And It's also had positive reviews from people who are Horror fans much more so then I am.

This show has some of the most notoriously gory scenes in all of Anime.  But it uses those moments sparingly, building up to them and earning them.  And it has exactly 1 scene that could qualify as a Jump scare, and even that is perfectly executed.

I'm not the only one who was reminded of The Wicker Man at certain moments (the original, I haven't seen the remake).  And I suspect it has some Twin Peaks influence too.  It is very much the Japanese version of a Gothic Novel.  But it's also very creative and original, and non-linear.  It's a period piece set in June 1983 but not constantly throwing the 80s in your face the way western TV shows set in the 80s do.

And that is my Spoiler Free recommendation.




Spoiler Warning.



I'm someone who often doesn't mind being spoiled, I'll intentionally read a book's afterward before the actual story.  But if there is anything I've watched where I'm glad I wasn't spoiled going in it is this Anime.  Because I was born in 1985 people don't believe me when I say I was surprised by Vader begin Luke's father when I first watched Empire Strikes Back.  But my family didn't have access to the Internet till like 2000, and my parents were not into Star Wars, and I didn't have friends back then.  But I can say being surprised by that scene did not effect my overall enjoyment of that film nearly as much as not knowing what's going on in Higurashi matters.

So I'm going to give a second spoiler warning, if you think you don't mind being spoiled, think really hard about that before reading on.


Spoiler Alert.

I got used to the new title pretty quickly

The Last Jedi should be fine.

To an extent I think how I finally feel about The Force Awakens will depend on how I feel about it's sequels.  Not unlike how BvS has effected my feelings on MOS.

I have feeling people are going be combing over this movie's Crawl to see what key phrase in it will turn out to be the title of Episode IX.

This is the first Star Wars title I dislike

Every Prequel title felt perfect to me from the announcement.  The Force Awakens I pretty much always understood.  And Rogue One was Rogue One.

But now Episode VIII will be

The Last Jedi

Number 1: Jedi has already been in a title, just two epsisodes ago they returned and now they're on the last one?

Number 2: The middle film title should be very verby, The Something Somethings, or The Somethinging of the Something.

Number 3: The middle film should also reference the villains in some way.

The people at GreedoSHotFirst seem to have a patter, no matter what they'll be snarky haters of the spin offs but blindly loyal to the Post-Lucas Episodes.  All while being not Prequels haters but still annoyingly dismissive.

Another post on Noir.

Last year I mentioned my revisiting of Noir, and then on Tumblr I went through it in Japanese with Subs for the first time.  I did all of it but either I forgot to post about the rest on Tumblr or forgot to Tag them.

One thing I forgot to talk about was how Noir anticipated not only my interest in Anime, but also my French Pulp Fiction fascination as well.  It was years after I already loved Noir that I first stumbled upon Paul Feval, and started reading articles on CoolFrenchComics.com

And the Les Habits Noirs lore with the emphasis on Corsica made me think of Noir, but so did the Secret Society themes in other works like those of Sue and Dumas.  And since CFC was talking about this stuff in the context of WoldNewtonUniverse style crossover speculation. I quickly developed a Headcanon that the Bouquets were descended from the Bozzo-Corona clan somehow.

Something else I want to comment on is how Noir is an interesting Anime to watch as a Christian, and I'm one who's views have changed over the years, but certain core points have not.  What I've become is a Universalist, the unchanging core is that God's Love is Unconditional.

Many times my fellow Evangelicals like Chuck Missler like to observe how The World often seems to understand the Problem, the Bad News, but is just lacking the Solution, the Good News, The Gospel, like this quote attributed to Socrates though I've yet to find it verified in a primary source.

"It may be that the Deity can forgive sins, but I do not see how."

The thing about Noir, and it may spoil it somewhat to say this, is that the original Soldats and Altena seem to to be well aware of the Problem, but are seeking a Solution that is totally twisted.  This aspect of Noir is I think a major part of why it appeals to me personally, though that was probably not the creators' intent.  But that is the nature of Art.

Update January 2025: Thing is as time is passed i no longer agree as much about defining what the Problem is.  Sin is a big factor, but principally The Gospel is about salvation from Death.

I'm attempting to revive my Shadowmen Lounge Message Board

http://z13.invisionfree.com/The_Shadowmen_Lounge/index.php

I made some new posts there recently, largely copy/pasting stuff form my blogs.  But it's easier to manage and follow a conversation on a Message Board.  And I like my Blog Posts to be conservation starters.

So for Blog Posts of mine that would be off topic there.  Feel free to share one of my posts on a Message Board you frequent where it would be relevant, and then let me know about it.

I'm planning to read The Hollow Needle and 813 very soon.  That should hopefully give me much to talk about.

I've listened to more Audio Dramas

I've highly recommended this overlooked medium of story telling on this blog already.  Talking about how scientifically it can help stimulate the Brain and make you smarter.

The prior two posts were all about DC Comics based products.  And while I have also listened to some more of those (a Batman Death of the Family adaptation, and a Long Halloween one) I figured I should show here how I've checked out some beyond that.

I of course years ago listened to the Orson Wells War of The Worlds broadcast.  It was entertaining, I don't have much to comment on about it.

I listened to much of the Radio Drama adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, up to the Mule.  I stopped there only because the story doesn't interest me as much once the Second Foundation stuff starts.  It's a good adaptation and I highly recommend it.

I also listened to and really enjoyed The Domino Lady All's Fair in War, fans of old Pulp Style stories should enjoy that.

I also listened to a Radio Play version of Carmilla, and it was great, the best adaptation of Carmilla thus far.

For the remainder of this post I want to talk about Rob Skiba's Seed The Series.  I just listened to the three Radio Drama episodes he has produced for it, which are supposed to equate to about half the eventual Live Action Pilot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDLCFTR-_nA
http://www.seedtheseries.com/audiodrama.html

Rob Skiba is a controversial figure, who teaches many things I disagree with.  But still I like Rob Skiba and I would like his project to succeed.  But I have a tendency to be disappointed by Christian Fiction, so I worry.

I try to keep my criticism independent of my Interpretations of The Bible being different, after all I enjoy endless fiction from people who don't revere The Bible at all. The entire lore Rob has constructed for this is built on assumptions I have come to reject, chiefly the vilification of Nimrod, but also the Hybrid theory itself.  But still since I actually enjoy stories that are Gnostic Allegories (like Utena and to an extent SAO), all of that is stuff I can accept.

So Spoilers ahead.

The main character is bland, and I'm generally not into such military centric fiction, it's an incredibly cliche approach for a work of Western Fiction.  And having so little from any Female Characters thus far does not endear me either.

This is nitpicky, but I can't help but notice that Rob seems to have forgotten when the U.S. entered Iraq.  This is dated to late 2002, the invasion was in spring 2003.  Maybe most people don't remember the build up to that war as vividly as I do, but for me that's a slight immersion breaker.  Of course my right to criticize such Anachronisms is forfeited since I wrote The Piano Maidens.

I myself as an aspiring writer have a tendency to do things like have my characters make Ghostbusters references, one of my favorite Anime is Lucky Star, that's what I like.  But the references made here were awfully generic and predictable.

Still, issues aside there is plenty of potential.  When he eventually records more I'll listen to em.  And I think these little Radio Plays could be very entertaining to someone who's tastes are different then mine.

Given the stated premise I'd heard from him about this before, about it being called Seed because he wants to start with small seeds and grow from there.  I do feel like he's started a little too big.  Meeting an actual Fallen Angel in the first episode is a pretty fully grown Tree I think.  And if he thinks viewers outside The Church (he said he wants it to have broad appeal.) aren't gonna get the Biblical References right away, he's grossly underestimating them.  Of course what he means by the references to Orion is fairly Esoteric, in fact I only know what he means cause I've listened to his "non fiction" ramblings.

I'm not saying it's a good idea to do a full bait and switch, make it seem not Christian at all only to suddenly go BAM here is a barrage of Bible Quotes.

I would use characters leading relatively normal lives.  In fact I'd do a High School drama, Western audiences look down on those often but I don't care.  I love, Buffy, Smallville, Spiderman, One Tree Hill, Pretty Little Liars and endless High School set Anime.

I'd have one main character who's a Christian interpreting what's going on to fit her Biblical World View, but hold off on showing anything to solidly verify her view is correct.  Make her have to actually have Faith.

And before encountering actual Old Ones, I'd build the supernatural aspects up more slowly.  I'd have Mages who practice Hermetic Magick.  Why favor Hermetic Magick?  Partly because I love Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero and like how it looks there.  And also partly because of how much I have enjoyed listening to the claims of William Schnoebelen about things like Transyuggothian Magick.  And I'd have at least one character claiming to be an immortal Alchemist in the tradition of Saint-Germain, Cagliostro and Althotas, but be ambiguous about if they're for real or not.

Basically, I'd start the show with the paranormal aspects being mild, and let it build up over time, a growing sense of escalation.

And of course my main characters would all be Lesbians.

John Devil Expanded Universe

I want to talk here a bit about my personal plans for expanding on the John Devil universe in future writings.