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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!
Volume four continues to dish out the chills and contains one of
the
most horrific episodes to date. You
won't want to miss it.
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 several stories, with each
story taking place at the different times, but with the same characters. Each story shows a different aspect of some
events that happened over the course of a few year, and some of them
don't fit
into a general continuity 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 episode of "Time
Wasting" a short two-parter. This tale
takes place years 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 who happens to be named
Tomitake 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 has some unsettling experiences while visiting, especially
talking
with the young girl Rika who predicts her own murder.
The volume is rounded out by the first three episodes of the
series' penultimate tale, "Eye Opening."
This six-part story also begins a few years ago, when Shion,
Mion's twin
sister, escapes from boarding school and returns to the village of Hinamizawa.
It's revealed that she's not welcome
there. Being an heir to one of the
powerful families in the area, she was born second, which is considered
an omen
of bad luck. In the past the second twin
was killed at birth, but instead Shion was just shipped off to a
soulless
school.
Returning home the young girl gets into trouble with a gang
and is rescued by Satoshi, Satoko's brother.
She immediately falls for the attractive and brave boy and her
heart
goes out to him when she discovers his horrible family life. He and his sister live with their aunt and
uncle,
their parents having been killed years ago and the second victims of
the area
'curse'. The aunt is cruel to them,
especially Satoko, who Satoshi tries to protect. The
stress of constantly being there for his
younger sister is taking a toll on the boy, which is apparent to all. Shion, seeing things from an odd point of
view, blames Satoko for her brother's problems.
After all if she weren't around he wouldn't have to protect her. Faulty logic or not, Shion starts to grow
closer to the young man, an act the will have horrific consequences
when the
head of her family finds out.
This series just keeps getting better and better. As
the stories start filling in events from
the past, a clearer picture of what is going on emerges, but there are
still a
lot of questions left to resolve.
Definitely not a show for young kids, this anime has a violent
imagery
and instances of torture. The fact that
it's self-inflicted makes it ever worse.
This is a powerful show that will drag you in, especially if you
enjoy
eerie shows.
The
DVD:
This disc includes the next four episodes in the
series. The version I received had a
black case instead of the clear keepcase that the other volumes had. There was still a reversible cover however
and insert that lists the episodes and opens up to a mini-poster of
Shion and
Mion.
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 4 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 it comes Highly Recommended.
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