Due to an unexplainable impulse, I grabbed the ひぐらしのなく頃に series and finished it in three days. I was really regretting it by the second episode and even considered deleting everything and pretending this never happened. But I persevered and prevailed.

I've known about this series and its popularity for a long time, but I also knew that the show is full of grotesque murders and collapsing personalities. That's why I didn't watch it. Ironically, I'm familiar with its songs and have even listened to one of the drama CD's before. Maybe that's what piqued my interest at last.

The first chapter was really scary and creepy, which almost caused me to drop the series. Things got less creepy with each progressing chapter, but the goriness remained. This is easily more bloody than the second last episode of Neuro and I doubt there's anything that can top this (not that I would want to watch it), except for maybe the rumoured School Days.

I was somewhat confused throughout the question arc, but the Time Killing Chapter allowed me to digest and think over the various cycles of events. It gave me some ideas and prepared me better when the answer arc started. Things are slowly being revealed, but there's still many mysteries shrouded around the village and its people. I await to see the truth and real keys in breaking the curse and solving the secrets.

On a side note, when I mentioned to bro that I was watching a really scary show, he brushed it aside because it's an anime. Dear brother, you said that because you haven't seen enough anime to know what the medium can do. It's precisely because it's an anime that it is able to achieve the effect. Those bestial and sadistic facial expressions and acts are not something that can be acted out by human so easily. アニメだからこそ怖いんだ、我が弟よ。