Much of this animation is steeped in the concept of duality, somewhat like a dichotomy between light and dark, with the uneasy blurring of demarcation rearing several times throughout the series. A shocking anime in its own right, with no apparent precedent nor plausible successor in terms of brutality married with moeness, it is distinctive in that it contravenes mainstream anime’s unspoken laws by showing the mutilation and murder of girls by EACH OTHER. What is chilling about this is the cyclic nature of the series, which intersperses gore and grisly occurrences with typically innocent behaviors and mannerisms matched by no less kawaii characters to boot. The duality of human nature is skillfully played out through this scheme of playback and loop, which, like a magnifying glass, penetrates the externalities of everyday behavior in the first two episodes of each arc to highlight the deep insecurities and paranoia that are flashed out to viewers in gritty detail in the following episodes, before culminating in a “bad end” and moving back in time to explore the mental landscapes of other characters—in the first season.
The second season is inherently different due to its undertones of hope which serve as a contradistinction to the gloomy first installment, in a brilliant manner that again showcases the myriad levels of duality that permeate this work. Due to fatigue, I will probably stop at the (very) short thematic synopsis of duality- on the next post I will be providing a psychoanalysis of higurashi in general. Only, don’t expect too much from a 16 yr old student.
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