Yeah, I’ve been a pretty die-hard Higurashi fan as of late – even going so far as to ship a few new pairings I didn’t even care for, including Keiichi/Rena. ♥ But all franchises have their weak points, and unfortunately, the Utsutsukowashi-hen (Reality-Breaking Chapter) manga is one of them. The arc, which focuses on Shion and her all-girls school, is by no means terrible. It just has a bland new character and not enough thrills to keep up with the chills, and really doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the series. Still, with only three chapters scanlated, it has a chance to turn things around; it’ll just take something close to a miracle.

The story opens with a fairly typical Catholic all-girls school setting, except one of the male teachers has just been murdered. The one who found the body, Mizuho, is a socially awkward girl with a rather tormented past. (Now where have we heard that one before?) Enter the one and only Shion Sonozaki and her boobs, who promises to help her cope with both the unfolding mystery and the drama in her past. But, of course, multiple wrenches are thrown in the works – the biggest of which involves Mizuho herself.

The biggest issue the series faces is the plot itself. Instead of delving into the repeating storyline or the aftershocks of the tragedies in the rest of the series, Utsutsukowashi-hen just does a fairly generic murder mystery. Granted, it has Shion as a main character, which is epic; but that’s not enough to make the plot rock. In chapter three, the plot even  gets shafted in favor of Mizuho angst, weakening the story further.

Speaking of Mizuho, she’s probably one of the worst characters in the entire franchise. Sure, she has some twists added to her otherwise boring character, but that doesn’t stop her from being incredibly annoying. Depending on how long the arc is, there still might be some time for her to be redeemed somewhat. The only thing I really dig about her right now is her hair. ♥

The other characters are decent, but the majority of them need a lot more development before I can actually start caring about them. My favorite so far has got to be the creepy chick Mizuho meets on the roof; too bad we don’t even know what her deal is yet. Shion gets a fair amount of awesomeness, but some of her best moments are reduced to fanservice, usually somehow related to boobies.

The art is actually one of the series’ strongest points. Mizuho’s character design, as said above, is adorable, and so are most of the other characters’. (Especially the creeper twins. ♥) Though there’s some mildly sloppy panels and such thrown in, most of the dramatic moments are really well-depicted, with just enough screentone and ink used to make things dark and awesome. The art style is ultimately somewhat different from those of the original anime and games, but it’s not such a bad thing.

I figured none of Higurashi’s arcs could surpass Tsumihoroboshi-hen, and I seem to be right – so far. Utsutsukowashi-hen is a bit of a disappointment, especially in how it has more talking than action. Though the characters are mildly interesting, it has the weakest female lead in the franchise, and the rest of them haven’t developed at a real fast pace. Fortunately, the art is pretty nice, and there’s still lots of ways the series can improve and live up to its sister arcs.

CJ’s Rating: 7 out of 10 California rolls

(A/N – Sorry for the late update this week. Major laptop fail. Go figure. <3)

Higurashi’s repetitive premise is a huge turn-off for a fair amount of potential readers or watchers, and I get that non-horror fans really don’t have much of a reason to get into the series. But the Onisarashi-hen arc delves into what happens outside of Hinamizawa because of the events within it – and isn’t a repetition of the usual timeline. Instead, the arc focuses on the bizarre case of a girl named Natsumi, whose ancestors are from Hinamizawa, after a final plot point in the main arcs. The resulting story isn’t brilliant, but is awesomely scary and fits in great with the rest of the storyline. It’s the characters and their drama that make this side-story shine the most, though, and create an epic, emotional story.

The story opens with Natsumi starting an ordinary day – ordinary school life, ordinary friends, ordinary crush on a cute guy. Her ordinary (for now) family had Hinamizawa blood in their veins, but that doesn’t matter until one day a certain plot point from the main series turns things upside-down. Then Natsumi is burdened with keeping her ancestry a secret; for a while, she succeeds at this. But what happens when everything spirals out of control and her very life is in peril?

Not what you’d expect, that’s what. The plot is epically twisty, and after 2 rereads, I still don’t fully understand the end. (My mind is semi in-denial, for starters…) Ultimately, the end comes down to Natsumi and her crush/boyfriend, Akira, and it is somewhat heartbreaking. The end is actually the weakest part of the series, however – partly because of its ambiguity, partly because of how the author essentially wusses out on the reader and keeps anything truly nightmarish from happening.

The rest of the series, though, is quite enjoyable. The characters do end up being rather shallow, as much of their characterization takes a major backseat to the blood n’ violence. But Natsumi and Akira’s relationship, as well as the role of Higurashi mainstay Oishi (w00t!), is well-executed and more believable than some similar parts of other horror series.

The series’ strongest point is probably its art, which flits between cute and absolutely creepy just as marvelously as other Higurashi installments. Natsumi’s character design in particular works incredibly well; the contrast between when her hair is up or let down is a nice smattering of symbolism for us nerdier readers. Even Akira manages to avoid being a carbon copy of Keiichi (which is a good thing, because I never did find the main Higurashi lead that attractive… :P) The more violent scenes are well-drawn and convincingly scary, though I may not be the best judge of that because of how un-desensitized I am.

For a side-series, Onisarashi-hen does a great job of maintaining the interest of fans of the original series. Instead of coming across as a trite character mashup, the arc provides a solid continuation of the main storyline. Though the minor characters do leave something to be desired, the main characters’ struggles and the twists in their journey make this a solid read. Recommendable even to non-Higurashi fans, as long as you’re not squicked out by blood.

CJ’s Rating: 8.5 out of 10 California rolls

I love Rena so much. She’s also who the first season’s season finale focused on, which is why I picked her.

I watched the famous 26 episode series last year. I actually hesitated to watch it for a long time, as I don’t like blood and gore very much, which from what I heard, I thought there was a lot of.

I actually opted to read the manga instead, as the first two volumes have been released over here by Yen Press.

However, the manga hasn’t been released beyond two volumes so far, and my library added the series to its collection. In between those two factors, I decided I wanted to give it a try.

I enjoyed it very much. The violence wasn’t as bad as I thought, although Shion’s arc was a little upsetting for me. In all honesty, I find Umineko scarier then Higurashi. It may have something to do with the fact I marathoned Higurashi, but can’t marathon Umineko.

My favorite part of the series was the characters. I can’t really pick a favorite character in Higurashi, I love them all. The main purpose of the first season seemed to laying the groundwork for the second season, but we’ll leave that for another day.

CJ’s jumping on the “Manga Monday” bandwagon! Each week she’ll cover a new manga series that’s either got her begging for a license or has her spitting fire at the screen. Either way, it will be entertaining, because she will likely drop all administrator pretentiousness and just speak the truth. (Interpret that as you wish.)

Half of me could never understand why Higurashi’s separate arcs were released as totally different manga series. Half of me doesn’t care because having different artists’ depictions of the characters (and resulting violence) is rather spiffy.

Unfortunately, the Higurashi series’ biggest draw for me is the thrills and action – which is best delivered in anime form. But Tsumihoroboshi-hen’s manga is one of the best of its genre; between its awesome art, pacing, and character dynamics, the Rena-centric arc is truly a gem. The chills and thrills are stunningly delivered, and its only real flaw is the relative lack of Rika-chama (thus far.)

After some silly school antics for most of chapter 1, the next two chapters cover Rena’s backstory, home life, and Oyashiro-sama-ing, and it’s actually not as boring as one would expect. I would love to delve into it without spoiling it, but it’s not really possible without a tl;dr annoyingly vague paragraph. It’s safe to say, though, that her story adds tons of complexity to an otherwise somewhat shallow character. (Come on, admit it – most of y’all just like her for the cleaver and thigh-highs, amirite?)

Eventually, another truth about her home life comes out: someone close to her dad is actually completely evil. And so Rena sets out to right wrongs; though she originally plans to do so without the use of her cleaver, things go awry and she ends up killing someone. And doesn’t care much. (Why? ‘Cause this is Higurashi.)

Though only three chapters have been scanlated (and no North American release scheduled yet, though it’s technically licensed) the ending has already been revealed by season one of the anime. I accidentally spoiler’d myself on someone else’s blog earlier, and things do take a bizarre twist away from the direction readers may think it’s going. I sort of hope the plot of the manga ends up differing from that of the anime – though the anime’s ending to the arc includes the most epic part of the season, it doesn’t make any sense. (Still, this is Higurashi, so…  it’s to be expected.)

If you’re not already a fan of Higurashi or similar thrillers, such as Umineko no Naku Koro ni, then Tsumihoroboshi-hen’s not likely to change your mind much. But it is one of the strongest parts of the series, despite the baffling logic (and lack thereof.) If you’re not too scared of blood or prone to nightmares, this is a great read thanks to its superb execution and art. When I’m done with this (or maybe before, depending on the release schedule) I’m checking out Utsutsukowashi-hen, which is more Shion-centric and looks just as epic.

CJ’s Rating: 8.5 out of 10 California rolls