Kinda hard to go into detail with a spoiler free review so if you want to hear my thoughts on each episode you can find them all herehttps://anilist.co/activity/136377032 along with my thoughts on the rest of the series. Easily my most anticipated show this year Higurashi Gou pulled me into the franchise and got me to experience the original Higurashi and I came out a massive fan and Gou only made me a bigger fan. But Im not a blind fan thats for sure and Sotsu has honestly been so painfully disappointing its decline in quality is crystal clear now. Gou set up its first three questions arc very well it was a bit slow but the end was always so shocking to see and once we got to the Gou answer arc I was nothing short of amazed with how great the story still was. And yet when it was the question arcs from Gous turn to get answered Sotsu answered them in the most boring way possible. They all feel the same now since how the characters get infected with the virus are the exact same throughout each arc. Its not as fun and engaging anymore since the answer is so plain and weve already seen the results of each arc to so there isnt much to gain by seeing a characters different perspective that is also barely different from the original perspective. Quite honestly these answer arcs are making me realize now that Gous questions arcs besides the last one were not done very well whether they showed too much or just werent written well maybe both Im not sure of completely but with these answer arcs its became so obvious that their isnt much else to add to them. Really thinking about it now did we even need to go back at all? Once we got our one big answer to whodunnit we could easily fill in the rest on our own disregarding just one character this season spent building up. The only arc we went back to in the original series was Watanagashi just as Meakashi and was an arc that added so much to the story every other answer arc from the original was new Tsumihoroboshi Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi all had new stories that still answered questions from previous arcs and I think if Gou/Sotsu was handled like this along with actually remembering its other characters and having them involved more with the story youd hear a lot more positive things about these two. But Sotsu tried to replicate Meakashi direction in going back to an arc to give it more depth and it didnt turn out well for it. Not helping Sotsus case was how each arc was handled Sotsu had 15 episodes to answer off everything else the series had remaining and myself and the fans were not buying that shit. It just didnt seem that likely to happen still with how well Gou was handled I held out hope that maybe they could get their shit together and make each revisit short and sweet so we could get into the new strictly new content faster. That didnt happen until episode 14 the first three Gou answer arcs took up over half of the seasons run time. This only happened by showing too many scenes from Gou and stretching things out with bad slow pacing that did nothing but worsen the season. The only decent pacing was for the first answer arc 3 episodes thats it but even then it couldve been shortened into 2 if they gave more of a shit. And I do want quickly address this since I know its often brought up but Umineko Ryukishi07s other series. Do you need to read it to make Gou/Sotsu a better viewing experience? No. Going through Umineko really only gives you a better idea of how Sotsu will play out and even then that isnt until the very end of the season. Reading Umineko does nothing to enhance Sotsus overall quality but you should still check it out Umineko its amazing. 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/905345690853605427/988173125583786084/unknown.png With Sotsu being the way it is it became harder to enjoy the series and this is as someone who has Higurashi as their 2nd favorite anime. I may of just gotten into the series almost a year ago but I adore this franchise now and it honestly hurts a little to be this harsh and critical of it. Though not to say the season was complete shit I still enjoyed watching this and it did have some great moments. The end of episode 8 the second half of episode 10 and all of episode 14 Ill get back to you all had moments I loved. Its just the overall package is not what I expected from this franchise I may of had my expectations to high sure but to those whove gone through the series and Ryukishi07s other series can at least attest that my expectations for a series that has When They Cry in its title are gonna be a bit higher then other series. But my expectations sure were met completely with Episode 14 easily the most split Ive seen a fanbase be in a while. People either loved it or hated it saying that the series no longer felt the same anymore Im sure you can guess with how I brought this up I loved it. Though I can completely understand why others say it doesnt feel the same anymore but I like to think of it as the series is growing and its changing cause of that Im sure a lot of people will disagree with me there and thats fine but I still wanted to mention the episode regardless. Overall Higurashi Sotsu is held back by its unsatisfying answers to its mystery reused scenes about half of them didnt even need to be there and stretching things out with bad pacing resulting in a more unfinished finale with a lot of unanswered questions. But I still could find enjoyment in the season despite how disappointed I was with its quality.