10 Anime Series You Only Watch Once
4. Higurashi When They Cry
Based off the visual novel video game series of the same name, Higurashi When They Cry is relentlessly unnerving to say the least.
A young man moves to a strange new town with a history of dark, bloody secrets. The narrative is separated into several different timelines, each one just as or even more insane than the last.
The first thirty seconds show protagonist Keiichi brutally beating two of his friends into bloody messes with a baseball bat. This is basically the series's way of asking its audience "are you in, or are you out?"
What makes the anime so effective initially is how disarming it is. Take out those first thirty seconds, and originally it seems like it'll just be about cute anime girls doing cute things. That is until the fingernail ripping, head-stabbing, and slashings start.
Using crazy bloodshed and the sinister overtones of its story, the series manages to carve mental scars in the brain of the viewer that just won't go away. Equal parts maddening and macabre Higurashi When They Cry is a hellish nightmare that you won't want to re-visit.