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)

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