Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a review copy

About the Mangaka

This series is a collaboration between Ryukishi07 who, as well as doing the original game, does the story. And Houjyou Yutori who does the art.

Ryukishi07 is the pen name of a member of a doujin group called 07th Expansion. They are famous for their visual novels, of which Higurashi is the most famous. You can check out their website here (NSFW & Japanese).

Suzuki Jiro has two other pieces of work, I, Otaku and Magical Muso. Though he has worked on several other projects in one form or another. He does however have a website, be warned it’s all in japanese and potentially NSWF

About the Manga

What a horrid cover, and sadly the art is just as bad inside. I almost didn’t finish reading it because the art was so bad.

Jiro is a gawd awful artist, yet he does have a few good moments. For example this volume starts with several pages of colour panels, and these are I admit very well drawn.

Sadly the quality tends to go down rather rapidly. For me in a way it’s the same issue that Goong has, over use of chibi and comic style characters, and use of said designs at the wrong time.

However this volume also suffers from character design inconsistencies, especially with Satoko. She has so many designs in this volume I wondered if a group of different mangaka were really doing the drawing rather than just one.

The other aspect that really disappointed me was the creep factor. Several times in this volume we have a “creepy” moment, and for the first time I didn’t feel like it was a creepy scene.

Only the first unrelated time, when the “curry demon” makes her appearance, are the creepy eyes done well. However in this scene it’s still more comical than creepy, so it fails.

The other times when we’re supposed to be getting scared of the demon aspects making an appearance, we aren’t. In fact for the first time we have an arc that can only be described as flat.

Sadly, it doesn’t end there, the other characters are also changed. The most notable being Rena, who for some reason goes through a short term total redrawing. In fact if I wasn’t consciously aware that this person was supposed to be Rena, I would have been wondering who she was.

Ultimately, this volume fails almost completely. As I said the sole exceptions being the colour panels and pages at the front.

Unfortunately even the story itself seems to be a bit well, flat this arc. As I read through the volume I didn’t feel the awe that the previous arcs had managed to provoke. I was also unable to really “get into” the story.

I’m a weirdo, I’ll admit it, when I read novels and manga, I tend to get really drawn into them and lose track of reality. I personally feel it’s the best sign of an excellent writer if they’re able to draw in their readers and cause them to forget reality, and submerse them in the story.

This volume didn’t have this, rather little things such as the kettle boiling, cat jumping on my knees, or the movie ending all interrupted my reading. This is an unusual thing for me, and I hate it. I like to be submersed and lose all track of reality and time.

Part of the problem I believe is that this time there’s to much focus on the comical aspects of the story. It spends to much time trying to make you laugh, rather than trying to draw you in. As a result it fails on both levels, as I didn’t find anything about the volume funny.

This is one of those rare times when both art and story are so far out of whack  it’s almost comical in and of it’s self.

I can’t really comment on Yen Press’ handling of the volume, since it’s so bad it’s hard to judge. However the way it flows and feels is the same as always, so I get the feeling the volume was just bad to start with.

As always though Yen do provide some translation notes explaining the terms used. These aren’t essential, but I do like them since it increase understanding of the scene and its relevance.

For the first time I have a Higurashi volume I think should be avoided, but I’ll wait till I’ve read the next volume before I decide. If it’s as bad as this one was this Arc will be dropped from my Essential Read list, and probably go on my Junk Pile.

Where to Buy

• Brits: Play.com or Amazon UK
• Yanks: Borders or Amazon US
• Canadians: Chapters or Amazon CA