Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Jiro Suzuki. Released in Japan as “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Tatarigoroshi-hen” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine GFantasy. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Bless me father, for I have sinned. It’s been over a year since my last Higurashi review. Look, sometimes things happen, OK? Especially when you KNOW bad, horrible things are going to happen and all you’re doing is waiting on tenterhooks for them to take place. In addition, this particular arc, while not the goriest, is particularly unpleasant in many ‘psychological horror’ ways. In any case, I’ve read it now, and hopefully will start catching up with the other 5 volumes I have left here. Oh yes, it goes without saying that if you don’t know the basic concept of how the Higurashi series works, you’ll be spoiled here.

So this is the ‘Satoko arc’. In the first two arcs, she was basically the bratty little kid who set annoying traps for Keiichi and did her ojou-sama laugh. It was briefly implied there was more to her than this, and this is the series where we find out what it is. She’s abused. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. For a while, she had her brother to help her, but he disappeared a year earlier, on the night of the Cotton Drifting festival. And now her uncle is back, and worse than ever. But now we have our hero! Can Keiichi help and prevent another cycle of senseless tragedy?

Nope. And here is where we realize it’s time to face facts; Keiichi is an awful, awful hero. As in the first arc, he’s driven here primarily be paranoia and fear, and by Volume 2 almost everything he does will make you want to reach through the page and strangle him. His “perfect murder” plan is laughable, especially given that he is so obvious about his guilt. What’s more, his innate distrust of his friends (who clearly are giving him an alibi, something he doesn’t understand AT ALL) leads him to make things even worse. Now, to be fair, Satoko’s uncle is a loathsome individual, even by Higurashi standards, and I shed no tears at his death. But as with the first two arcs, Keiichi seems to be defined by making the wrong decisions over and over. Which makes sense – this is based on a game, and there is no good end.

That said, if you can get past the protagonist’s idiocy, there’s a lot here to like. The mood is oppressive throughout, with the mantra of “we’re powerless” coming up over and over. As I noted above, the gore here is subtler, though it does appear when it needs to (Rika’s corpse is as horrible as ever). The most depressing moment of the manga is not the ending, with its huge pile of body bags, or Keiichi’s murders, or even Rika at the shrine. It’s Keiichi patting Satoko on the head, and having him hit what is clearly a hidden wound – something which sets her off into a shrieking frenzy as the strain gets to be too much for her. There’s also odd hints and suggestions that work better in hindsight, after playing/reading the other arcs. The poem at the end is written by a character from the sequel series Umineko. And a phone conversation with Mion Keiichi has, and her subsequent freak out, makes me wonder if another ‘twin switch’ was going on at the time.

Overall, while there are no ‘good endings’ in most of the Higurashi series, this is one of the worst. Luckily, we’re done with Keiichi as the hero. Next time, we get what appears to be a side story taking place a few years earlier, with a young police officer running into a little shrine maiden girl. However, I’m sure nothing will be as it seems. In the meantime, if you like over the top psychological horror and don’t mind the occasional lolicon character designs, Higurashi will deliver for you.

Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Karin Suzuragi (Abducted By Demons Arc)and Yutori Houjyou (Cotton Drifting Arc). Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialized in the magazines Gangan Powered (Abducted by Demons Arc) and Gangan Wing (Cotton Drifting Arc). Released in North America by Yen Press.

Before I begin the review, I want to note that a certain amount of spoilers are inevitable. If you know nothing about Higurashi and want to read the first series completely cold, stop right here. This review assumes you know the basic ‘gimmick’ behind Higurashi, and the reason the manga is divided into arcs.

I’ve never played the Higurashi games, but I know of the basic premise through Internet Osmosis. The games are quite popular, so it’s no surprise that the franchise was picked up for a manga. The manga has been running in one form or another for almost 5 years (the final arc is currently running in Gangan Joker), so it’s also quite popular. Square Enix seems to enjoy setting each new arc in a different magazine (the 3rd arc, Curse Killing, was in yet another, GFantasy) in order to get fans to spend even more money. Whether that was successful is in doubt; both Gangan Powered and Gangan Wing have folded since these manga came out, being replaced by Gangan Joker.

Higurashi reads, on first glance, like a dating sim. There is little doubt that the author set it up that way on purpose. You have the all-purpose normal male lead, and he gets to choose between the shy girl, the busty tomboy, the grumpy loli and the happy loli. Even the introduction of Shion in Cotton Drifting is pure datesim – look, an identical twin! What are the odds they’ll switch? Or have different personalities deep down? Will wackiness ensue?

Well yes, but not THAT kind of wackiness. Higurashi is a murder mystery. And a horror manga. And, yes, still partly a datesim. (It may also be a floor wax and a dessert topping, I’m still looking into that.) As Keiichi, our “hero”, goes through his everyday life he finds out that everyone in the town is hiding secrets. There’s also a legendary past, the spectre of the God Oyashiro-sama watching over everyone, and worst of all, his shy friend/tomboy friend (depending on the arc) is acting really creepy and threatening.

As individual arcs, I found the Abducted by Demons arc stood better on its own. Keiichi’s spiral into paranoia is pretty well done, with the reader trying to figure out what’s going on without necessarily being on his side. Things descend into a spiral of madness and come to a hideously tragic conclusion. The end.

Well, not quite. First, it’s hinted that there will be a further series examining the same events (the “Atonement” arc) in the final ‘coming soon’ pages. But then, in the next manga, everything’s back to normal. Keiichi and his friends, still alive, go through the same wacky comedy datesim events again… and then the secrets come back, and things fall apart in a totally DIFFERENT way. That’s Higurashi’s basic gimmick, watching the bad end several times over and picking up clues as to how you can finally beat the game.

Of course, this being a manga, you aren’t choosing anything. I’m pretty sure the creators assume the ones reading this are Higurashi fans. Like many other media tie-ins, these manga are not really for anyone who wants a good yarn, or wants to figure out what’s happened next. They’re for people who’ve played everything, and seen the anime, and want to watch another variant of the characters they like descending into slaughtering each other like wild dogs.

This can work against the manga at times. The second arc, Cotton Drifting, features Mion’s twin sister Shion, and much of the plot of the first volume involves the classic ‘twin switch’. Unfortunately, much of the second volume involves Mion, Shion and Rena explaining things in long laborious monologues, and a great deal of the violence is only hinted at offscreen. (That said, it does have a fantastic final ‘horror’ image.)

At the end, we see that the Cotton Drifting arc also has a ‘response’ to it in the ‘Eye Opening’ arc, which seems to star Shion and will presumably expand on things here. Probably a good thing, as it doesn’t work as well on its own as Abducted By Demons did. Unfortunately, we get all the initial arcs first, before we get any of the followup ones. The manga follows the game, and wants to leave you confused. Not always a good thing in a manga series.

The art is typically shonen, but each arc is done by a different artist, so there are variants. The second arc’s artist seems to enjoy drawing Mion and Shion’s large breasts, whereas in the third arc (which I haven’t finished yet) everyone looks much younger and ‘cuter’. And Yen’s translation is serviceable, although translating Rika’s verbal tic as having her call people “sir” makes me think of Marcie from Peanuts. Then again, I’ve always felt it very hard to do accents or verbal tics in translation to begin with. Osaka from Azumanga is another example of a translation choice that I knew why they did it, I just found it awkward anyway.

Overall, this is a series for those who already like the franchise. That said, it’s well done overall (assuming you can get past the basic otaku fetishes that litter the premise), and I look forward to further volumes.