After having watched ep 4's raw, I am seriously tempted to say that this is by far the best anime of this season (along with Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu).

Rena is officially my favorite loli ever. Such an adorable psycho ^o^

Gnngnnggnnngnnn <- sound of teeth grinding out of sheer frustration.

Dammit...not enough space due to Rozen Maiden 2 (Conclave) and Paradise Kiss release stalling.

-EDIT-
Maybe I will after I get all the necessary MAR episodes to fit into a DVD.

Just watched episode 2 yesterday, and fair to say, someone here has a double personality, and it reminds me of "Texas chainsaw Massacre" preluding to the whole event. hahahaha.

I just watched those 2 episodes today.. it was very consufe in the beginning @~1@". About the art, i didn't like those legs, too skiny and tiny for me. but the plot is really interesting.. and i was cool... when the eyes of the girl with brown eyes turned in the weird form .. like eyes cat for the first time

From episode 2 I think:

SPOILER (click to view)

you know what I really like about this show?
It is the opening and ending, each highlights a mystery behind the scenes, and the way they present the music, underlying impact over the characters as you look closely, it is really something unique. I mean, who would have thought that looking at the cover was not appealing, and then when you flick on, the opening just sorts of tells you, hey something smells good in here.

I would also agree that this has been the best anime series i have watched all season. after ep 4 i wonder how things will progress. i was actually fooled in the beginning. thought to myself that i stumbled on to another anime that has no particular conflict or problem to solve. then i found my jaw drop onto the table. it scared the crap out of me. and now i am forever scared of lolis. also i skipped the intro and ending. gotta rewatch that it sounds interesting. i guess it's the reason why i was so shocked when the first ep ended.

It has by far boosted to the top of my list. I watched all 3 in one go when I found out about it.

Last episode (4) and 5's preview still has me baffled though... Haven't really done any research on it. But I'd rather leave it as it is, and understand it as I go. ^-^ It's what really makes the experience of watching all the better.

Watched up till episode 3 (Triad's) and I have to admit that this is one of the most spine-tingling series I have ever watched. It actually caused the ends of my hair to stand. I don't think this really qualifies as a horror genre though but more of a thriller type anime.

I just loved how those eyes went all " neko" when the girls dished out all those freaky warnings and interrogations. And the juicy bits of dark mysteries that were revealed along the way are too well done. It really pulls me along with the flow of the story's pace.

I'm dying to know if there was some dark conspiracy to cover up some dark secrets or if there really was some supernatural superstition controlling those girls. The wait is killing me.....

My goodness, I have never been this tense before just from watching anime...

@omnidevil: that's scary you know..

HOLY CRAP after watching episode 4 I'm in ahhhh!!! Man what is going to happen next after the events at the end of the episode.

SPOILER (click to view)

Rena and Mion getting killed by keiichi and then he killed himself. but the preview of the next ep. it you see Mion and I want to know what is up with that. also who is going to be the main characters now?

Episode 4:

SPOILER (click to view)

it will be the same, just a different timeline.
This story runs like a path game, you choose the path you go, but this game has a majority of bad endings (ie, the one in episode 4 is an official ending but no answers were uncovered, nor did anyone get the girl).
so no, we asked for Mashiro sama (Mai Hime) to press the RESETTO button and voila, back to previous save area to continue the story... blah blah.

So in other words:

SPOILER (click to view)

reborned?

We call this

SPOILER (click to view)

OH SHI_ TIME PARADOX

LOL, don't think too much, take it with a pinch of salt.

Lol... nice mgs reference.

Well, a few things get answered actually, it's just that people won't notice them immediately or atleast they won't until they'll see the other chapters.

But anyway, as Omnidevil has mentioned, this anime is going to follow the game it derives from, which is divided in 8 chapters (7 chapters released and the 8th last chapter that has to be released this july), each of them 'restarting' from a certain point of the story/plot and showing a different ending. The first chapter, Onikakushi-hen, finished with episode 4. In episode 5 the second chapter, named Watanagashi-hen, will start again from a point of the story we've seen, showing a different ending, and will most likely cover 3-4 episodes as well, and so on. The producers have said that this anime will only cover 6 chapters, leaving out the 7th and the 8th (this last one that as I said still has to be released for the game anyway), but which should provide enough informations to the viewers to uncover the various misteries. A curious fact that I read among this sea of informations (trying not to get spoiled about the plot <_<; ) is that despite the fact that each chapter ends differently, it has been stated by the producers that each character remains the same in terms of overall personality, meaning that what happens in each chapter is due to something external. That's a pretty interesting thing as it makes you speculate of why and what things went that way. :)

I gotta say that I got literally intrigued by this anime and the whole misteries that it covers, and it's probably the best anime of this season (yes, I'm putting it ahead of Haruhi *_*). Oh, in case anyone is interested in joining me in the speculation and analysis of each episode (there are lot of details that I've found out re-watcing the first four episodes), me and a couple of friends created the channel #HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi @ Rizon, on IRC. :)

[EDIT]

One more thing! Thanks to that adorable fool known as Kozu, I got the link to a Battle game based on Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni! Looks like fun! :D

http://tasofro.net/c69.html