Absolute Anime

-I love it. I don't care what anyone else thinks; I love it.

I have not seen an anime since Elfen Lied that has made me recoil in horror or have nightmares; save for Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
School girls wielding machettes, tasers and stabbing nails and knives into each other in the name of paranoia - I don't know what part of it is great, but somehow it all ends up as gold to me.

When I first watched it, I hated it to pieces. I thought it was gross, disgusting and just violent for the sake of violent.
...then I realised that I wasn't actually paying attention to the storyline and I had missed out on several arcs - skipping ahead to watch an eight year old girl ram her head into a butcher knife.

Despite all the blood and gore, the story and characters are pretty likable... and hate-able.

-has anyone else seen it?

Seen, and I agree with your review. At least, the first part.
I simply found it awesome. I started watching it at 03.00 AM and I had to stop because he gave me chills, and that's a big plus.
The story is wicked, and the "restarts" made me think that it was a "many episodes" serie: when I saw the last episode, I understood the meaning behind all that.

Too bad that graphics aren't that great (even if the eyes when they freak out are awesome), and the japanese voices are a bit cold.

I think that's a good and unusual anime, and I'm looking forward to see the 2nd serie.

Btw, I heard about a 3rd one incoming...

I love this anime!!
XDD

-I can't wait for the third season! xD though I'm a little confused, will we be introduced to a new set of characters - or will we still have Keiichi and stuff?

I love this Anime. Did anyone else hear about the live action movie coming out!? I found the site for it! It looks awesome! http://higurashi-movie.com/index.html

...that is just too awesome for words. Now I have a live action movie AND a third season to look forward to. xD
I hope there's lots of Shion/Mion.

Found a cool parody on youtube.
http://uk.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1B3C7CC3AAB648D6