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The
Series:
Violent murder, torture, and insanity fill the
fifth volume
of When They Cry, a unique
series that is grim, eerie, and very dark. This
disc wraps up the "Eye Opening" story
line and begins the final chapter, Atonement, which promises to be just
as
spine-tingling and horrific as the previous arcs. This
show isn't for the faint of heart, but
if you're looking for a show that will stay with you long after the
final
episode ends, this is 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 years, 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 picks up where the last one left off, with the
fourth episode of "Eye Opening." This
six-part story begins a few years ago, when Shion, Mion's twin sister,
escaped
from boarding school and returns to the village of Hinamizawa. She heads there even though she knows that
she's
not welcome. Her twin is heir to one of
the powerful families in the area, but Shion 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. When
the aunt is murdered and Satoshi
disappears, Shion is heart broken.
Years pass and Keiichi moves into town. He
looks and acts a lot like Satoshi, and
Shion soon starts to investigate the circumstances of the young man's
disappearance. She convinces herself
that her family is responsible for his death and comes up with a plan
for
revenge. Kidnapping her sister and
locking her in a dungeon cell, Shion takes Mion's place and lures
unsuspecting
family members away so she can torture them to death while Mion watches.
The final 'chapter' (as the stories are called) is
"Atonement." The narrative reboots once
again and the tale takes place soon after Keiichi arrives in Hinamizawa. Rena hasn't been there long either, having
moved there with her father after her mother ran off with another man. Things are going well for Rena until she
overhears her father's new girlfriend talking to her real lover. She's planning on milking Rena's dad for all
of his money before dumping him and moving out of town.
What can the petite young girl do against
this scheming crook?
The conclusion to "Eye Opening" was very good. The
show illustrated Shion's decent into
madness well and the horrific results were hard to turn away from. This is one of the few 'horror' anime series
that is actually scary.
The big picture is getting a little less opaque too.
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
some
of it is self-inflicted makes it even 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.
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 5 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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