For Higurashi Month here at JanaiBlog, I have been charged with delving into the manga version of this masterpiece. We’ve already romped through the first two arcs in this incredible story. So, let’s move on to the third arc, the Curse Killing Arc.

Like the second arc, this one seems to start the story over, with everyone alive and getting along. The story of Oyashiro-sama’s curse still holds power in this arc just as in the previous two, but rather than focusing on Rena and Mion like the first and second arcs did respectively, this arc focuses on Satoko and her tragic past.

We know at this point that Satoko’s parents fell to Oyashiro-sama’s curse years ago, but now her abusive uncle has come back into the picture. He begins to abuse her physically and mentally, and Keiichi is shocked to hear that this has happened before, and Satoko’s friends and teacher have been unable to do anything about it. When Satoko begins to look up to Keiichi as her surrogate brother, he decides to take matters into his own hands to protect Satoko, with deadly consequences.

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For Higurashi Month here at JanaiBlog, I have been charged with delving into the manga version of this masterpiece. We’ve already romped through the first arc of the story. Now we shall embark on the next piece of the puzzle, the Cotton Drifting Arc.

The first thing you will notice is that everyone who died in the first arc is alive with seemingly no memory of the chilling events of the first arc. Get used to this; every arc of Higurashi starts the story over fresh, although it does keep many of the main plot points.

Rather than focusing on the curse of Oyashiro-sama right off the bat, we start with a bit of lighthearted comedy. Keiichi runs into a waitress at a restaurant who looks exactly like Mion, but claims to be her twin sister Shion. Eventually, Keiichi realizes that she is telling the truth, and Mion does in fact have an identical twin sister. Shion begins to fill Keiichi in on more of the history of Hinamizawa, which eventually leads him tumbling into the temptation Shion offers him on the night of the Cotton Drifting Festival. She drags him into an act forbidden by Oyashiro-sama.

Keiichi fully expects to be the next victim of the curse, however this year the curse does not play out as it had in the past few years. His only solace lies in Shion, who is the only one who knows the truth of what they did that night, but Keiichi must question if he can even trust Shion as more truths are revealed.

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For Higurashi Month here at JanaiBlog, I have been charged with delving into the manga version of this masterpiece. So, let’s dive in, shall we?

The story of Higurashi takes place in a small village called Hinamizawa and centers around Keiichi Maebara, a boy who just moved there with his parents. He befriends a group of girls at school, and as the days wane on he finds himself fitting in and finding happiness. However, this village has a traditional festival every year called the Watanagashi Festival, to celebrate Oyashiro-sama, a god that the villagers worship. Keiichi finds out about a strange “curse” where every year, during the festival, one person disappears and another turns up dead. He normally wouldn’t think much of it, but the odd behavior of his friends and their refusal to answer his questions make him more and more suspicious and determined to find out the truth behind the curse of Oyashiro-sama.

The first thing you will notice about this manga is that while the art may be cute and almost reminiscent of the shoujo style, the story is bloody and twisted, and that quickly changes your perspective. The story is dark, intense, and suspenseful, leaving you guessing about the truth up until the very last moment. However, the story is also filled with its silly moments and its own delightful brand of comedy, and it is mixed in with the darker parts of the story just right so that you can get a laugh and still feel the drama of the more serious scenes.

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