History[]
KiraKennedy's "When They Cry The Abridged Series" was made despite warnings from a friend of his not to make a Higurashi series due to a previous failed attempt at an abridged series that only lasted five episodes. Despite the fact that there are 4 other Higurashi abridged series' out there, Kira attempts to bring something new to the table in a fashion similar to that of Team Dattebayo (one of his many influences) by making subtle plot changes, such as Light Yagami being responsible for the deaths in the first arc (compressed into one episode), he also dedcied to go with the American name of the series as an attempt to stand out among the other Higurashi abridged series' on youtube. Kira, however also creates (very much UNLIKE Team Dattebayo) a very random production that involves breaking the fourth wall several times, extended musical numbers (this is more-so for other projects), the use of one song that is looped at one particular point (as shown in the first episode when "One Winged Angel" would be played multiple times over to forshadow, or even convey fear in a humorous way), as well as a very wacky sense of humor. The Series began in February of 2009, and currently has two episodes released.
Production[]
Currently, as with all of his projects, KiraKennedy uses Windows movie maker to put together the videos, and Audacity to record his lines. For Source material as well as various sound effects, he uses a Youtube downloader to download an entire arc of the series in the event that a source provider is forced to take down their videos.
Opening Theme[]
The Opening Theme for Higurashi TAS is "Waking The Demon" By Bullet For My Valentine. Kira chose this because he believed it fit the original plot of the series, in which every person in Hinamizawa has a mental illness or a "Demon" inside of them.
Characters[]
- Keiichi Maebara: The main character of the first episode, he is new to the village of Hinamizawa and (as seen in the first episode) does not like playing Yu-Gi-Oh. He also doesn't seem to care much and tends to blurt out things (Eg: "Thanks psycho bit- I mean Rena"). He also has violent outbursts when he gets poked by sharp objects (as seen when he finds the needle in his riceball and when Mion sticks him with the needle). It was also revealed in episode two that he enjoys using cheesey pick-up lines, and almost tried to hit on Rika and Satako. He is currently voiced by KiraKennedy
- Mion Sonozaki: Keiichi's friend from school and the creator of her school's "Nerds Anonymous" club, which Keiichi is also a part of. Mion tends to think down on certain people. She and Rena visit Keiichi's house multiple times during the first episode, and both are hit multiple times with a baseball bat because she tried to poke him with a syringe. She does not like talking about her sister, Shion, due to some Yuri fanfics circulating about them. She is also currently voiced by Kira Kennedy
- Shion Sonozaki: Mion Sonozaki's younger sister. She works at the Angel Mort cafe where Keiichi mistakes her for her sister and tries to hit on her... until she falcon punches him. She is also voiced by KiraKennedy using his "Mion" voice and an Audacity filter to raise the pitch that voice, to differentiate the two.
- Rena Ryuugu: Rena is another friend of Keiichi's who, like Keiichi is a transfer student, claiming to be part of her school's SOS Brigade. She was voiced by KiraKenendy in the first episode but is currently voiced by Kyoko Hitaka.
- Rika Furude: Not much is known about Rika as she does not appear until the end of the first episode. She only says one word so far (Nipah) and seems to end every one of her sentences with the word "desu". Currently she is voiced by KiraKennedy with the aid of an Audacity Filter to raise the pitch of his voice.
- Jiro Tomitake: Like Rika, not much is known about Tomitake, due to a short appearance in episode one. However, he seems to hate KiraKenendy's constant jokestealing and tries to warn Keiichi not to say anything that would offend anybody, or else four anime characters (including himself) would be killed by the end of the episode. He is currently voiced by KiraKennedy.
Controversy[]
As with most works of KiraKennedy, there is some attempt to keep the plot in tact, but this can be lost due to bad voice acting (having all of four different voices, his own, two or three variations on a female voice, few variations of deep gravelly stalker voices, or beavus like voices), as well as somewhat of a lack of originality in the first episode, which (however) a fellow abridger commented as such:"You're series is literaly other jokes followed by your own jokes every 10 seconds"
An Example of this can be shown in the beginning of the first episode.
Rena: Hey can we get this party started? I brought my Jonas Brothers Mix CD.
*Punching Noise*
Narrator: Dude, what's that say?'
Kira: I think it says June 21st, 1983
Narrator: June 21st, 1983
Keiichi: I'M! NOT! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Keiichi's Mother: Keiichi Honey, what's that noise? You aren't commiting another murder again are you?
Keiichi: No mom, I'm umm, in my happy place
Keiichi's mom: Okay honey, just be sure to clean the (BAGELS) off the wall this time. '
Hiatus[]
Due to a number of voice actors having gone MIA, as well as starting college in the fall, Kira has decided to put the series as well as Digimon Abridged on an "Indeffinite Hiatus". Another factor to the decision to put these shows on Hiatus was that Kira felt like he was getting less done than when he was focusing on just one series where he did all the voice work himself (AKA His First Ultimate Muscle Abridged Series).