Higurashi When They Cry

The characters and voice acting is fantastic. The silly friendly interactions in the beginning is ridiculously fun and wholesome to read. But later on, the silly scenarios goes too overboard and is straight up bad. I don't like that sometimes there's a long ass monologue w/ excessive details, which destroys pacing and mystery. And I don't like when out of nowhere, a character relationship suddenly turn 180. 8.5-8.9-9-7-9-7.8-7.6-7.5; last episode feels like a fan fiction. 84-87.

Unbearably stupid protagonist. It's like they make him comically stupid in order to make sure now of the mysteries are solved. I don't think I've ever hated a protagonist more than i hate this guy. The rest of the world is great, but god the protagonist is awful, he belongs in a shonen where he can scream and gain super powers, in a mystery game he's just awful. Felt like a cliche horror movie character.

07th-Mod, which essentially converts the PC releases into the console ports with high-quality art and voice acting, was absolutely essential to my enjoyment of this series.