I’m a fan of Studio Deen…. but not this year. So far, I consider them to be even worse than AIC, because at least AIC delivered Hourou Musuko and Persona 4 this year. Something really needs to happen to them, because in the past they have delivered plenty of classics.
This episode thankfully was not as abysmal as the first episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira. At least stuff happened. Instead, this was just boring. It was pretty much like the silly episodes of Higurashi Rei, only worse. The reason why they worked well with Rei and not here is simple:
1) those episodes were simply better executed. They did what the TV-series did, only more over the top. It was varied, the characters had fun with each other and the timing and delivery was good. Instead though, you can really see how much the new director hurts here. This episode felt lackluster, the characters one sided and its scenario was just dull and predictable.
2) In Higurashi Rei, the silly episodes were wrapped around an amazingly written storyline focused on Rika. They juxtaposed well because of that: on one hand you have the characters just having fun, and other other hand there are the hard hitting storylines that made this show big. Take away the latter, and you have just random episodes that try to be funny, but because of reason 1), aren’t.
Here’s the thing: the silly episodes of the previous installments of Higurashi added to the characters. This however reduces the cast to caricatures. The preview to the next episode suffers from this as well: it on purpose focused on the caricatures of the cast.
OVA Episode Rating: 6/10
