I agree with almost all of your points. The one thing I do want to add in its defense is that I don't think it was supposed to be a complete standalone. There were supposed to be subsequent episodes. Some of the complaints might have been mitigated by developments in those subsequent episodes... But given that they show no indication of being released any time soon, a lot of good that does anyone.
Clevomon:
Finally, an actual, logical point!
I guess that is true, but I think that even as a set up to a later episode its kind of....well...average. Keiichi and Rena would still act OOC, the pacing will still be awful, and the worldbuilding will still be kind of trash if those episodes are released because the set up (I'm assuming it is) was pretty bad.
All I can say is that if it was supposed to have more episodes, it needs to have slower pacing and actually develop EVERYTHING that is happening....and maybe fix a few of the flaws that I mentioned.
There's only two explanations for why the movie turned out they way it did based on your defense:
1. Episodes were cancelled and they rushed the pacing to ridiculous extremes to try to cover the story.
Or:
2. They were rushing to get to the "good" part in a later OVA but the episodes are either taking forever or are cancelled.
Either way, I'm just saying that it really should have taken its time. Cancelation (Maybe?), hiatus (Again maybe?), or whatever should be no excuse for that.
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Ryochi's Review of Higurashi Outbreak OVA
.....well...fuck...
Pros:
Good animation especially compared to the original anime
Good fight scenes
The Outbreak part is....interesting I guess....
Cons:
Bad pacing. If I notice bad pacing, then its just bad (I'm terrible at noticing pacing). We're just told that they're going insane, we're just told about what happened to Rika and Satako without any proper build up.
(Big one) Keiichi and Rena going around and killing people. Its fun to watch I guess, but from a writing standpoint this is just...bad. I'm sorry but Keiichi and Rena killing people without any personal conflict (or being affected by the disease) is just....bad Character Development and just comes across as Character Derailment (Especially when Keiichi and Rena talk about being so excited to kill twenty people)
(Minor) How the hell did Keiichi and Rena survive while fighting twenty people?
(Another Big one) Rika deciding that she needed to watch over the world to "see what will happen as the reincarnation of Oyashiro-Sama" is just really pretentious and she would be better off just going with the gang. It made absolutely no sense to stay in my honest opinion and just sounded really pretentious.
(Moderately big problem) The worldbuilding, something I am absolutely fascinated with Higurashi, is just not good at all in here. It basically just hefty exposition dumps with no unique visuals like Higurashi and Higurashi Kai had (Yes even the first anime had good visuals when it came to worldbuilding. Particularly unique reaction shots)
(Big one) The characterization in general just took a huge drop in this OVA. Each entry into a franchise should add to the franchise while acting as a standalone (unless you're Higurashi Kai). This is NO excuse for some poorly paced characterization I am seeing in this movie.
Overall:
This movie.....was a huge disappointment for me. The pacing was bad, the characterization took a drop, the plot (even if it is trying to be the main focus) is just a generic outbreak story.
Sigh......for me...I would not recommend this movie as a fan of Higurashi. Its not godawful, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a huge disappointment.
I will refrain from mentioning more about this movie but for me its PAINFULLY AVERAGE. And it BARELY reaches average for me.
Sigh, just so disappointing.