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