First off, I’d like to say hello to everyone on Forever Geek. My name is Nopy and I guess I’m the newest member here. I have a strong interest in anime and anything anime-related (in other words, I’m an anime otaku) so the majority of my posts here will be dealing with these areas.

For my first post I thought I’d review the first episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei (a.k.a. When They Cry or When Cicadas Cry), which was released on DVD at the end of February. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei is the OVA (original video animation) for the Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni series, meaning that one episode will be released on DVD every 1-2 months. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni series, it’s about a group of children (Keiichi, Rena, Mion, Shion, Rika, Satoko, and Hanyuu) living in a secluded town in Japan during the 1980s. During the month of June in 1983, strange events begin to occur such as people disappearing, finding dead bodies, suicide, and mass paranoia. All of this eventually leads up to the night of a local festival at the end of the month where everyone dies or goes insane. After that, Hanyuu, who is actually a goddess in human form (albeit with limited power) turns back time in the hopes that the slaughter at the end of the month doesn’t occur again. Of course, life never goes the way you want and the events repeat over and over again. Besides Hanyuu, the only other person that knows about the turning back of time is Rika, a young preistess. Being a priestess, Rika has some spiritual powers and is able to remember what happens before Hanyuu turns back time (which sucks because she always gets killed at the end of the month). Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni focuses on several different arcs where the main characters try to solve the mysteries surrounding the town and survive past June 1983.