Another new volume/arc in the Higurashi series... well new. Not really since the OVA for this series came out in 2009. An arc I really loved as it shows yet another world in the Higurashi world.
This one is all about Rika. Yes the cute and also dangerous girl (since we know how powerful she is). She was too happy, too careless and at the start of the book got into an accident because of her carelessness. She finds herself at a new world. A world where her friends are happy, a world where there is no sin, a world still filled with her parents. A world without pain. But is it all that good?
I loved that we got more back story on the parents, it was really interesting to see them in here, considering in most arcs they are dead. Died in 1981 and leaving Rika alone. But as we can see in this arc, Rika turned away from her parents often, especially when she learned they will die. We find out that Rika doesn't like her mom, or her dad. Her mom is overly hysteric and her dad doesn't mind doling out punishments if she did something wrong.
However you can see that Rika's mom is just trying to care for her in her way. And we also see that it isn't always the mom's fault, but also is based on Rika's attitude. I really loved seeing the realisation and that Rika and her mom are being happy together.
Of course, as is expected, there can't be a good ending in this one. Hanyu tells her that to get out of the world she has to make a choice. She has to find a fragment (and it can be in a person) and that Rika has to destroy/kill/burn said fragment so it can be free and so Rika can go back. This puts Rika in a difficult position. At times she would have said she doesn't mind killing a person, but what if everything is turning out to be a happy event with said person? Rika must make a choice and while I was worried and at times disgusted (can't anything in Higurashi just go well for once?), I was also cheering and loving the fact Rika had to choose.
I won't spoil the end, but I am really wondering if what has happened was real or not. Hanyu says some things, but as we know with the world of Higurashi, nothing is what it seems.
The art seems to falter a bit in this one. Faces that look a bit off, bodies that seem not human and some other things.
I know we still have some Arcs waiting to be picked up and translated and I hope Yenpress will get to them soon, I don't want the world of Higurashi to end yet.
Reviews first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
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