Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku ~Outbreak~
For a franchise profitable enough to have two live action movies, a TMA parody, and enough ancillary material to fill a large bookshelf, this, made to promote a pachinko machine game, feels most like what an anime movie would be like, just without the theatrical release part. It has to do with the way the story's told. A good amount of screentime is spent on the world outside, and the end keeps the stakes personal while also showing that things were ratcheted up to include the whole world, and not just Hinamizawa.
And that's the thing about shows with infinite timelines. The story can go in whatever direction it wants, because as long as that loop keeps going, the world can rewrite itself countless times. Not a single "nipa~" to be found, and Hanyuu wasn't in her adorable mode like she was back in the Daydreaming Chapter, so I'd wager this likely took place early on in the loops.
Plenty of blood, no penalty games... in some ways, a different experience from the main series, but in many ways, the same. In retrospect, maybe I should've started with this first and then watched Kira. But the extra length used to tell its story was used well, fitting a lot into a small amount of space, relatively, and the pacing was carried out well. The Satoko rescue mission kept the stakes high, and also easy to sympathize with for K1 and Rena.
I got to listening to some music from this series, and I realized that it does feel like a full world. I can see why it was hugely talked about back in its day. The journey through the backlog continues.