Over the last few weeks I've really been getting into the anime version of "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni". It's a really brilliant series, excellently executed in such a way that it's richly layered, unfolding in the most gripping and entertaining way. It's fairly gruesome in a few places, though, so not for the weak-stomached... I'm up to the 23rd episode of the first season so far...
This first season of this series started being released on DVD in the US by Geneon, but they've since stopped releasing DVDs, so that's a pity. It's only possible to legally buy half of the TV series in English.
The series was based on a multi-part doujin visual novel (or, sound novel, the box says - which means it's mostly text, not so visual) by "07th Expansion", and a group of fans are working on translating the text into English. Their work is available here: http://rapidshare.com/users/MQK6IW
So far they've done the first five days of the Onikakushi arc game (the first story in the anime series), both for the free demo version of the game and for the full version of the game. I haven't tried it yet. I've placed an order for what I thought was a copy of the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni game, but if the pics on wikipedia are anything to go by, that may just be the Himatsubushi arc game (which is the "time wasting" arc, the last of the "question" arcs in the game and the middle of the TV series). Which, on its own, would be a waste of time. But then, the fan-translators point towards instructions on buying Higurashi online to download and play, and it has the same boxart. So, I'm a bit confused. It mentions on wikipedia that each of the answer arcs contains the previous game, so maybe the final question arc did too? Oh well, I'll see how it goes. I also ordered a CD at the same time so I expect I'll be happy with whatever turns up. I want to finish watching the anime series first, and go onto viewing the second season (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai).
BTW there's a live-action movie coming this year as well. The very idea makes me somewhat afraid.
EDIT - 2008-02-11 20:30: My copy of the Higurashi game arrived today, hooray! It says on the fan translation site that their patch is made for the Himatsubushi-hen version of the game (maybe I didn't notice before), so it'll be the right one. I need to clear up some space to install it. I've listened to the CD - the Yukino Satsuki version of "you" - I really love it. I like this tune, it's so addictive. ^__^
