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The
Series:
When They Cry comes to its
gruesome conclusion with volume
6. One of the few horror anime shows
that is actually horrific, this series is not for the faint at heart or
squeamish. For those who enjoy chilling,
well told stories punctuated by some bloody violence, however, this is
a
not-to-be-missed 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 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 concluding disc finishes off the last story (in this
season) "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, Rina, 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.
Rina tries to buddy up to her mark's daughter, but when Rena
admits that she knows of the plan, a fight starts and Rina ends up dead. Hiding the body in an old junkyard, Rena then
targets Rina's boyfriend, luring him to the same junkyard and coldly
dispatching him. How far is Rena willing
to carry this to protect her father, and what happens when her friends
find out
what she's done?
This series ends on a high note, just as it began.
The final story has that eerie, suspenseful
tone that's accented by the fact that Rena is so young and cute. The last person you would expect would be
capable of multiple homicides.
There are a lot of horror anime, but very few of them are
truly scary or horrific. Most of them
deal with demons that rip off peoples arms or sever their heads. After you've seen something like that once
however, it looses its impact. This show
has a fair amount of blood, but the demons are real people and the
violence can
be gut-wrenching. Who can forget the
scene, in an earlier volume, when Shion has to pay penance to her
family for a
transgression by having three of her fingernails ripped out? And she has to do it herself.
A memorable show that has strong scripts in
addition to some very near-tingling scenes.
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 6 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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