The controversy surrounding the recent Higurashi GouSotsu series was amusing to watch because I purposefully chose not to watch them. Ive always felt that Higurashi is the type of series that shouldnt have had any side stories or direct sequels that take place after the last episodebecause of how conclusive it was. For those who dont know Higurashi Rei was the first set of side stories following the main story of Higurashi and Kai. Episodes 18 of the Higurashi visual novel and their anime adaptations Higurashi Season 1 and Kai or Season 2 were overall great psychological murder mysteries with a Groundhog Daylike scenario and the way things built up toward the end was excellenteven if the pacing was a bit slow at times. Higurashi Rei was clearly the first of many attempts to cash in on Higurashis legacy and squeeze more money out of the franchise. Unfortunately for the most part I wasnt really a fan of these OVAs. The best way to describe them is that theyre half sliceoflife fan service and half a brandnew side story that focuses on Rika once again. The sliceoflife segments are more or less what youd expect from Higurashia lot of characters playing games and trolling each other. But this OVA leans more into generic fan service with some harem teasing for the main male character Keiichi. These moments are mostly inoffensive but since I was never super into the sliceoflife aspects of Higurashi I just found them whatever. The main selling point of Rei or its serious story arc is Saikoroshihen Dice Killing Chapter. Without getting into spoilers this is a direct sequel to the serious events of Higurashi Kai where Rika is put in a situation that forces her to reconsider the choices she made regarding fate and everything that was built up in the first two seasons. Essentially she is given a chance to live in a supposedly perfect worldone without all the drama murder and suffering. However this comes at the cost of losing all the camaraderie sacrifice and character growth she and the others went through. Rika herself would also be a stranger to many of the people she once knew. In theory I like this idea. But in execution it just felt like a cheap way to bring back drama. Higurashi Kai had a perfect ending for the serious parts of the story and this side story felt unnecessaryarguably even insultingby forcing Rika through melodrama again. The entire point of Seasons 1 and 2 was for her to develop beyond this struggle yet this arc drags her back into it. The fact that the serious part of Rei happens because of a convenient mistake on Rikas part makes it feel like an even bigger slap in the face. Overall the plot of Higurashi Rei isnt a terrible ideajust something that honestly didnt need to exist in a standalone entry like this. Given how bad nearly every Higurashi spinoff has been I highly recommend sticking to Higurashi Seasons 1 and 2 by DEEN and/or the main eight chapters of the visual novel. Dont bother with the spinoffsunless you want to lose some brain cells.