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The
Series:
When Geneon announced that they were stopping their North
American operations that one title that was really gnashing my teeth
over
missing was When They Cry. This series
is truly unusual and unique with an unusual set of characters and a
novel way
of telling a story. Happily FUNimation
stepped up to the plate and released the rest of the series. Woo-hoo!
Though it's been a while since I screened the previous disc,
volume 3
quickly reminded me why I enjoyed this grim and scary show.
Series background:
Keiichi Maebara is a teenager who has just moved to the
small rural village of Hinamizawa, and is having just a bit of trouble
fitting
in. The school is very small and
everyone who attends has known their classmates for years.
He soon makes friends with Rena, who is
Keiichi's age and might have a small crush on him, Mion the head of the
school
game club and a year older than Keiichi, and Satoko and Rika, a pair of
younger
girls who are too cute for words.
Rena's a bit strange, but Keiichi hangs around with her
mainly since she's the only kid his age.
She likes to go to the local dump and look for things, and on
one such
trip the new student accompanies her.
While he's there he meets a photographer from Tokyo, Tomitake,
who comes
to the village every once in a while to photograph the local birds, and
his
lady friend Takano. Talking to this man
Keiichi learns of the city's deep dark secret:
Five years ago a damn was going to be built that would have
flooded the
city. One night a man working for the
company that was going to put up the damn was murdered and dismembered,
and
parts of him were never found. Every
year since then during the Cotton Drifting Festival, the anniversary of
his
murder, another person turns up dead.
The locals say it's the work of a demon named Oyashiro, but who
believes
in demons in this day and age?
This anime is a little unique. It is made
up of four part stories, with each
story taking place at the same time and with the same characters, but
they are
totally different and contradict each other.
The backgrounds are the same but each different story is like a
look at
an alternate reality.
This volume:
The disc starts off with the final three episodes of the "Curse
Killing" story line. When Keiichi asks
about Satoko's brother, Satoshi, transferring away he finds that the
story he's
been told isn't really true. The older
boy seems to have run away, though some people think that he was cursed
and
killed by Oyashiro. Keiichi pretty much
scoffs at that, but when he sees the young girl's home life he's
appalled. Satoko lives with her uncle who
treats her
like a slave, and there are bruises all over her body.
When Child Protective Services come to check
it out though, she denies that she's being abused.
This abuse drives Keiichi wild. He can't
stand to see his friend hurt, so he
decides to take matters into his own hands and kill Satoko's uncle. He plans out exactly where and how he's going
to do it, during the Cotton Drifting Festival while everyone's
attending the
events. He pulls it off, but the next
day everyone remembers him attending the Festival, and Satoko is still
behaving
like she's being abused. Did Keiichi
murder someone or was it all in his head?
This volume ends with the first part of the next story,
"Time Wasting." This tale takes place
earlier, when the dam that would flood Hinamizawa was still being
considered. While there is naturally a
lot of protests in Hinamizawa itself the Minister of Public Works'
grandson, a
young man named Keiichi is kidnapped.
The police are handling the case very discreetly so they send a
young
officer named Akasaka to the village to check out
the groups
that are resisting the dam (and who might have a reason to kidnap an
official's
relative.) He's posing as a photographer
and has some unsettling experiences while visiting.
This series just keeps getting better and better. The
fact that not everything is explained in
some of the stories makes it even more thought provoking.
Did Keiichi really kill Satoko's uncle? What
about the other people who died, was
anyone to blame? I love the way that
each story starts off with a very pastoral and gentle tone but then
gets increasingly
eerie and nerve wracking as it progresses.
The
DVD:
This disc includes the next four episodes in the series.
It comes in a clear keepcase with reversible
cover. There is an insert that lists the
episodes and opens up to a mini-poster of Satiko.
Audio:
This disc comes with the original Japanese soundtrack as
well as an English dub, both in stereo.
I alternated between languages while watching the show and
enjoyed both
tracks a lot. The young girl's voices in
the English dub are high pitched and squeaky, which is annoying, but
when the
girls change to scary mode it's very effective.
The voice changes aren't so different to be silly, but they are
very
eerie. The sound quality is very good, with the dialog coming through
loud and
clear and the effects coming in at the right levels.
There isn't any distortion or other common
audio defects. Subtitles are available
in English and for signs only.
Video:
The 1.78:1 picture is anamorphically enhanced and looks
great. The image is sharp, the colors
are solid and strong, and the level of detail is fine.
There is a small amount of aliasing in the
background, but this is pretty minor and doesn't interfere with
enjoyment of
the show.
Extras:
The only extras are three previews.
Final Thoughts:
Eerie, scary, dark, and grim. When They
Cry Volume 3 is all that and more. One of
the better anime shows to be released
in 2007, I'm really glad that FUNimation picked up where Geneon left
off. It's an awfully good series and comes
Highly
Recommended. |
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